The Girl Without a Name
by beccArt
Summary: She woke up without a name. She woke up without a clue where she was from. She woke up without a purpose. She woke up to a family.
1. The Girl Without a Name

A blizzard swirled around in her vision. Snow cradled her sides. Unrelenting wind lashed at her face.

Where exactly was she?

She sat up, and a bout of dizziness immediately overcame her. Placing her head in her sweaty palms, she resisted the urge to vomit, willing the bile to stay down.

"Oi, girl!" A harsh, wizened voice rang out through the sound of the blowing snow. "What the hell are you doing here, eh!?"

Muscles tensed. Instincts flared. She whipped around, using the very air around her to help her tired body stand and face whoever had appeared, battle stance at the ready.

"Oh?" The old woman who she was now staring her down looked amused. "What's this now?"

The girl's breathing was heavy, and it took effort to even make the action happen. "Who are you!?" She finally yelled after a few tense moments.

"You want to know the secret of my youth!?" The old woman answered.

The girl stood to her full height, completely thrown off. And then the full extent of her weariness hit her, and her knees failed. She managed out a weak "That's not... what..." before blackness hit.

OoOoOoOoO

Dr. Kureha scowled as the girl before her collapsed into the snow. "Well, that was pretty rude." She shook her head in disapproval. "Damn kids these days." Eyes traveled to the young companion at the doctor's side. "Chopper, go check on her."

A nod of approval, and the reindeer was off, bounding through the snow with long legs made for traveling through the stuff. Shrinking down to size, he put a hoof on her forehead.

Feverish.

"She's running a fever, Doctorine!" He called out to his mentor.

Kureha sighed in response. "Alright, bring her in!"

Chopper morphed to his large, human-reindeer hybrid form, and scooped the girl up in his arms, his mind trying to diagnose her. Flu, maybe? Was there one going around down there? Her breathing was shallow, and she was covered in sweat. They needed to get her back into the castle, quickly.

"Good thing we found her when we did." He commented to Doctorine as he ran up to her. "She's sweating so much, she would've frozen to death."

They walked in silence through the castle entrance and up the stone stairs, into a room where Doctorine and him could treat the girl. Placing her into a cot, Chopper noted her muscled form and compared it to that of his mentor's. Doctorine was a human female who's facial features showed that of her true age- 139- but who's body was that of a young woman's. This girl, however, boasted a moderately toned body, unlike that of any human women he'd seen in the villages. _"I guess she could be one of the lumbermen." _He thought absentmindedly. Then again, her clothes looked kinda strange. They didn't look like any clothes he had ever seen before, even if they were for a winter island like theirs.

"Let's see what we got here." Doctorine's voice snapped him out of his musing, and he stepped back just enough to let her work but still give him a view. "You were right about the fever." She felt her forehead. "Looks like a bad flu and exhaustion, get me-" She stopped. Chopper could hear a quiet mumbling, coming from the patient.

"R... Raava..."

Doctorine huffed, unconcerned with her patient's mumbling. "Get me a cold washcloth and some of the flu meds."

"Right." Chopper replied and padded over to the adjacent room. He had just dipped the washcloth in a bucket of water when he heard a chair crash.

"Better make that some sedatives!"

OoOoOoOoO

Kureha had dealt with violent patients before, but one who displayed such violent tendencies while still passed out was rather unusual. Still, nothing she hadn't seen before. She elbowed the patient in the chin, pinning her left arm down with one hand, the other prodding the right arm for a suitable vein.

The 139-year old's protégé soon ran in, syringe in hoof, and injected the struggling teen with sedatives. Both doctor and student the held the patient down until her thrashing stopped and she was still.

"This isn't a flu, is it, Doctorine?"

"Nah." Kureha answered her young student. "I think I know what it is, though..." The doctor walked into the other room, Chopper at her heels. "Haven't seen it in awhile, though. Pretty rare." She reached up to a high shelf and grabbed a small bottle coated in dust.

"What's she got, Doctorine?" Asked Chopper, ever curious.

"Well," She began. "You can get sick from a lot of things, Chopper. Viruses, parasites, bacteria, and..." Kureha paused as she poured a syrup-like substance from the bottle onto a spoon and shoved it into her patient's mouth. "Evil spirits."

"Evil..." Chopper gulped, his voice somewhat shaky with slight fear. "Spirits?"

"Ghosts, demons, the like." She explained while easing the syrup down the passed out teen's throat. "They infect the soul of a sick individual and feed off their energy, killing them." She gently lay her patient back down onto the cot and covered her with a blanket. "The medicine I give her contains a mix of spices and herbs said to ward them off. Buncha superstitious shit, but hell, it works." Kureha smiled down at her protege, who was staring at her with attentive eyes. "C'mon, I'll show you how to mix it."

OoOoOoOoO

"Doctorine, I've detected an antibody reaction."

"Oh, is that so? Then tell me, what's the cause?"

"Kestia."

"Alright, I'll leave the treatment to you."

The girl leaned against the cold stone wall, looking over at the small reindeer work. She'd only woken up that morning, almost completely recovered, except for that fact that she had no memory of who she was or how she got to the top of a sheer mountain in the middle of a blizzard.

"Hey, Chopper." She spoke up, bored.

No response.

"Hey. Chopper!" The girl crossed her arms, slightly annoyed at having been ignored yet again by the reindeer; She'd hardly gotten a word out of him. He barely even spoke to Dr. Kureha when they all went down to the village earlier.

As Chopper began to grind medicine ingredients together, the girl walked over to him and looked over his shoulder, curiosity taking over her boredom. He stopped grinding and looked up at her, fear and slight annoyance marring his features. "Go away, please." With that, the reindeer walked over to his newest patient, a young orange-haired girl they'd again found outside the castle. With her was a scrawny, black-haired boy with a straw hat and a hell of a case of frostbite, and and a blonde man with a broken spine.

"Who's there?" This, and a loud crash, caused the amnesiac girl to dash over to the source of the sound. The orange-haired girl had woken up and was now sitting in bed, staring at Chopper, who had apparently jumped back in fright and right into some nearby shelves. The reindeer scrambled right into the other room and grabbed the empty doorframe, as if he were hiding behind an imaginary wall.

"Umm..." The girl spoke up again. "I think you're supposed to do it the other way."

Chopper's eyes grew even wider and he corrected himself, correctly peering from behind the wall this time.

"A little too late for that now... And I can still see like, half your face. Just what are you?"

"_S-Shut up! Y-you damned human! _By the way, how's your fever?" Chopper's tone quieted down for his last sentence, compared to the fearful screaming of the ones before it.

"It talked!" The girl gaped in amazement, while the reindeer shrieked in fear and somehow crashed into even more equipment in the other room.

The teenage girl laughed. "C'mon, Chopper, she's hardly in any condition to hurt you." She turned to the sick young woman and her smile grew wider. "He did that for me, too."

"_Keep it down in there, Chopper!" _Kureha's voiced yelled from yet another room. The old woman walked in, bottle of sake in hand, and laughed. "Look's like your fever's gone down quite a bit, missy." She noted, poking the other woman's forehead. "You happy, pappy?"

"And you two are...?"

"38.3 Celsius... Not bad..." Kureha pushed up her sunglasses. "I'm Dr. Kureha, but you can just call me 'Doctorine.' This girl here doesn't have a name, but I just call her 'Bear', on account of all the fur she wears."

"Doctor? Then this is-"

"You want to know the secret of my youth?"

"No, I never asked-"

"This is the castle on top of the mountain."

"We found you outside awhile ago, with two other guys. They're asleep in the other room." Bear explained as a look of relief washed over the other girl's face. "The hat guy said you three were friends. Looks like he climbed his whole way up the mountain-" She chuckled, amused. "But that's impossible."

"Here, look." The doctor lifted up the patient's shirt slightly, forgetting the concept of personal space. "This here's the cause of your fever." On the girl's torso was an enormous bug bite, just above her naval. "You were bitten by a Kestia, a poisonous tick that lives in the tropics. The bacteria living in that tick changes hosts when the tick sucks on the blood of another animal.

"There's tropics around here?" Bear interrupted, confused. "But, we have to be in a tundra! And what's a tick?"

"Its rude to interrupt, Bear." Kureha scolded, kicking at the teen, who jumped back, easily avoiding the doctor's leg. "As I was saying, once inside, the bacteria causes great pains for its new host for 5 days. Fevers of 40 degrees or more and inflammation of various body parts occurs, including the myocardium, artery, and even the brain!" The old woman held up a finger to quiet Bear, who was about to interrupt with yet another question. "Judging by the bite mark, it looks like today was your third day since infection. It must've been quite painful, but the pain would've naturally subsided after 5 days of infection even if we left your body as it was. Because in just 2 more days, you'd be resting in peace in the afterworld."

Bear snorted. "Gee, make her feel right at home, why don't you!"

Kureha frowned and aimed another kick at the teen. "You're pretty damn rude missy, y'know? Anyways, the disease from the bacteria is also known as '5 days disease'. From what I've heard, Kestia should have went extinct over a hundred years ago, so you're real lucky that I happened to have the antibiotic for it. Just what the hell have you been doing, missy? Running around half-naked on a prehistoric island?" The doctor laughed. "I'm just teasing wi-"

But the orange-haired girl made a small noise, as if she had just connected two and two together.

"Wait." Bear started, an eyebrow arched. "_Have _you been to some prehistoric island? And you decided to go, 'Hey, I don't need a _shirt _or anything while I'm here!'" She shook her head. "How far away is the ocean from this place, anyways? It's gotta be miles away!"

The sick girl looked at the teen as if she were crazy, before being slapped back down into bed by Kureha.

"Just go back to sleep for now." The doctor said. "You haven't fully recovered yet."

"Thanks for your help, but I'm fine as long as my fever's going down." The sick girl argued. "My body can heal on its own, right?"

"Only if you let it." Bear explained, confused as to why the girl would want to leave the safety of the castle for the blizzard outside. "Your body needs to focus itself on regaining your energy and fighting off the disease, not running around and getting yourself into more trouble."

Dr. Kureha laughed. "Just let my medicine do all the work, missy. With my treatment, you'll fully recover in just 3 more days!"

The orange-haired girl shot up. "3 whole days!? No, I have somewhere I _need to be _right n-"

There was a flash of metal, and Kureha was suddenly there, holding a scalpel to her patient's throat. "There's only two cases in which I let my patients leave my sight." She laughed again, her high pitched chuckle ever present. "When they've healed... Or when they've died! You're not going anywhere, missy."

"What-"

It was then that Chopper crashed back into the room, screaming for help, the two other patients hot on his tail.

"Stop right there, you piece of meat!"

"Hold your horses, Luffy. I'll make sure to season it up first. If we're going to eat it, we might as well eat it right, you know?"

Bear's eyebrow twitched, and she casually walked right up to the three, before kicking the blond one straight in the mouth. "There, how's that taste!?" She picked the man up by his arm and sat him down on a nearby stool. "What are you doing up, anyways? You cracked your spine and broke 6 of your ribs, you shouldn't be able to stand!"

"Quit it, you humans!" Chopper screeched, still trying to escape the other man's grasp. "I hate humans like you!"

"Luffy, I told you not to eat him yet!" The blonde slipped off the stool Bear had sat him on and back to Chopper, again trying to trap him.

"I said stop!" Chopper had enough. He morphed into a larger, almost sasquatch-like version of himself and slammed his assaulters to the ground. "I'm not your food!" He then ran out of the room and away, tears streaming from his eyes.

The one named Luffy grunted and pushed himself up from the stone floor. "Oi, Sanji, after him!" The two made a move to stand up and rush after the reindeer again, when Bear stepped between them and the door.

"Knock it off." She commanded in a strong voice, staring the shorter boy down. He seemed to comply, tilting his head slightly to the side, while the blond stared at her with an unreadable expression in his eyes. Suddenly, he kneeled on one knee in front of her and bowed his head.

"Of course, my lady." He made his voice deeper than what it normally was, as if he was trying to sound that way specifically for her. "I must say, your's is a beauty I haven't quite seen before. I sense grace within in you, but also the ferocity of a warrior. You must be..." He paused and took her hand in his, for dramatic effect. "A Goddess of War."

Bear was taken aback. "Ummm..." She struggled for a response to... Whatever just happened to her. "Th- Thanks? I think?" This guy was weird. "C'mon, let's see your spine."

The man, Sanji, looked as if he was about to protest, but Bear gripped his hand and pulled him up to his feet. "Woah." His voice lost the deep notes it previously had, and now was one of suprise. "You're stronger than you look."

"Uh, yeah, I guess..." Bear walked him over to the stool she had previously sat him on.

"Oi, Bear!" Kureha spoke from her spot by the sick girl. "Who's the doctor here, eh?"

"Relax, I'm just helping them." She countered back in annoyance. "Wait here, please." She directed at Sanji, and walked off into the other room. She soon came back with a large stone pot in her arms. Placing it beside the blond man, she began removing his bandages.

"Let's see how you're doing." She began looking his torso over, inspecting his wounds.

The other man's loud, piercing, high-pitched voice broke through the air. "So, lady, you're name's Bear, huh!? That's a weird name! Are you secretly a bear!?"

"No, of course not!" Bear snapped. "That's... Not actually my name. Probably. I have amnesia."

"Wow, really!? How'd you get that!?"

The teen frowned, annoyed. "How should I know? I don't remember anything." She turned to Sanji, finished with her inspection. "You could still use some work. Now just relax, okay?"

Bear stared down at the pot of water beside her and widened her stance ever so slightly. She reached down and plucked some water out, as if it were a solid she could hold. It was as if she could control it with her movements, the water following her hands to Sanji's spine, faintly glowing. The glow flowed up and down his back, Bear's hands directing and controlling it.

"_Woah~!_" Luffy gaped from his seat, absorbed by the sight. "How are you doing that!?"

The teen directed the water back into the pot and frowned. "I don't know. I just-" She sadly shrugged. "It just feels right. Like, something's telling me 'this is what you do' whenever I use it." Looking down, she sprouted a small flame in her palm. "I can control water, earth, fire, and air."

The raven-haired boy was estatic, practically jumping out of his seat with amazement. "Wow, that's _so _cool!" He looked Bear right in the eyes, his own full of excitement and wonder. "Hey, lady! Join my pirate crew!"


	2. A Monster

"Join my crew! Please!" Luffy had his arms splayed out on the table, his face leaning forward to meet Bear's with a determined expression.

Bear herself leaned back as far as her back would let her, uncomfortable with the boy's directness. "Ummm..." She smiled in a sort of wavering, what-is-even-happening-here way, "Thanks but, uh, who are you, exactly?"

"Eh? I just told you, I'm Luffy!" He leaned forward even more.

"N-No, I mean, who exactly is 'Luffy'?" She took a step backwards.

"Luffy is me!" He clambered up on the table in order to be even more in her face.

"Luffy, you idiot!" Sanji's arm reached out and pulled Luffy back from Bear's personal space. "You can't talk to a goddess like that!"

The raven-haired boy adopted an incredulous look. "Eh, a goddess!? Her!?"

"Listen, Luffy." He placed the boy down and gave him a serious look, as if he were teaching a child a very important lesson. "We've all been blessed by her. You have to be respectful."

"Ah." Luffy nodded, understanding, and then turned to Bear and bowed. "Thank you, ma'am. Please join my pirate crew."

Bear felt the heat rise to her face. "I'm not a goddess, you weirdos!" Her screams fell on deaf ears, however, as the two noticed Chopper, who had snuck back into the castle.

"Wait, reindeer meat!" And the chase was on again, with Chopper in the lead, followed closely by Luffy and Sanji, hungry looks gracing their faces.

"Hey, stop right there, you brats!" Doctor Kureha suddenly entered the chase, bringing up the rear with a vicious look in her eyes.

"Hey, wait a second!" Bear followed the four, not even sure how she got into a chase like this. "Your goddess- uh- demands you stop, or something!"

Sanji turned his head towards her, a loving look on his face. "Not to worry, my lady! I'll be back soon with a delicious feast of reindeer for you!" Instead of the serene face of a thankful goddess, however, he was greeted with the sight of a wrathful Kureha. "Aghhh! It's that old hag again!"

"And she's carrying knives!"

Bear struggled to keep up with the group, who were moving at speeds she thought impossible. "Wait, Kureha! Weirdos! Chopper!" She'd lost them, and in the process, gotten herself lost in the castle. Again. Thankful for the thick furs around her legs and waist, she wished her torso and arms had been graced the same way as well. Snow crunched under her boots as she walked into the main hall, a few stories up from the ground floor. Leaning against an ice-incrusted railing, a sigh escaped her lips, and she found herself feeling very alone in the ice-cold, whiteout of a fortress.

Where had she come from? Who was she? How did she get here? She racked her brain with the questions she had been asking for the past day, but still found no answer. It was the most frustrating feeling in the world. She had no one, did she? Someone must've dumped her here because they didn't want anything to do with her. Someone left her here to die. That was why there was no one here for her. Bear was beginning to convince herself of this when voices below snapped her out of her thoughts.

The two weirdos, Luffy and Sanji, were standing in front of the castle entryway, looking at the top of the wooden door. Not far from them stood Chopper. Bear smiled. She too had tried to close the door of the freezing castle. She too had gotten yelled at by Chopper. And she too had noticed the nest of baby birds on top of the door. If anyone tried to close it, the nest would've fallen.

No, actually, Bear couldn't say she was alone. Sure, someone may have abandoned her here. But Kureha had told her Chopper's story when she had woken up. The world had abandoned him, too. So in a way, she felt a sort of kinship towards him.

"Wait a sec... Did that reindeer talk just now?"

"Ah! And was he walking on two legs...?"

Bear chuckled. About time the two weirdos actually noticed Chopper was a person, not a piece of food.

"It's a monster!"

Bear didn't chuckle at that. Her gaze hardened, and she felt a sort of anger burning in her chest.

"W-What the heck is he? He's fluffy... Walks on two legs... Looks like a reindeer..."

The listing of all the faults of Chopper was interrupted as a small plume of snow flew up into the air. In the plume rested Bear, and all she could see was the sad look on Chopper's face as he walked away.

"And what's so wrong with that, huh?" She stomped towards Luffy, a clear warning in the aggressiveness of her gait. "Is there something so strange about that that you have to talk about him like that?" She leveled a glare at him. "Chopper may be different from you, but that's what makes him cool. That's what makes him unique. He's a person, and I won't let you talk about him like that. Got it?" He stared right back at her. And Bear continued to glare at him, challenging him to say anything different, to tell her that she was wrong.

And across Monkey D. Luffy's face broke the biggest smile Bear had ever seen. "I know, right? He's so cool!" And across Bear's face broke the most incredulous expression she was sure she had ever made. "Hey, are you friends with him? Since you're joining my pirate crew, get him to come along, too!"

Bear just continued to stare.

"Oi, Luffy!" Sanji berated. "You can't just order a goddess around like that! You have to-"

Laughter broke across Sanji's speech. Bear was doubled over, arms trying to keep her lungs in her chest. "You're so crazy!" She slapped a knee, still laughing. "I like it! You're cool, too!" The girl straightened up, smiling. "I misjudged you. I have to apologize for that. You're actually a great guy." Then she turned and lightly punched Sanji in the arm. "And I told you, I'm not a goddess, I'm just some girl."

"Is that so? Just some girl?" Luffy grinned at her. "Well, I think you're cool, too!"

Bear leaned against the stone wall of the castle and crossed her arms. "I'll put in the good word to Chopper for you, okay? Although, I don't really know him all that well..."

The raven-haired boy laughed. "You don't know him all that well, but you still defended him, huh? Man, you're a really good friend!"

"I think she just explained that they aren't really friends, idiot..." Sanji commented drily from beside him.

"And about your offer." Bear looked up. "I'll have to think about it. It sounds fun, I guess. And its not like I have anywhere else to go, but... I don't want to hurt innocent people. That's a definite deal breaker." She turned back to him. "I'll have to think on it for a bit, okay? I still have to figure out how to get my memories back."

Luffy just continued to grin at her. "Fine by me. Think real hard, okay?"

"Making deals with pirates now, are you?" No one even noticed Kureha and Chopper walk up to them. "I don't think we need your memories to know that you're probably a violent criminal."

Bear frowned at her. "Says the woman who chases two sick people around a castle with knives in her hands." She hadn't failed to pick up on the tense atmosphere the two newcomers brought with them. "What's up?"

Kureha scoffed and pointed outside. "Unwelcome visitors." The older woman and the reindeer went outside, leaving the other three alone again.

"Unwelcome visitors?" Sanji stared towards the open doorway as voices could be heard rising outside. "Wonder what she means by that..."

Bear thought. "I don't think anyone could get up here all on their own, unless they climbed up the face of the mountain like you did-" She pointed at Luffy. "Which, by the way, should actually be totally impossible, and-" Her voice died in her throat as she caught just two words from the din outside.

'Drum Kingdom.'

She used the wind to quickly pull herself around the corner and out into the snow beside Kureha and Chopper.

"Hey, Doctor Kureha."

Kureha acknowledged her with a grunt.

"Is this that guy you told me about? Is this 'Wapol'?"

OoOoOoOoO

It was only hours after the girl had woken up that she asked about him. The little 'cat-deer'.

"The what?"

"The cat-deer with the pink hat on. How did you meet him?"

Kureha stared at her patient, who she now was sure was very insane. "That's a very long story, girl." She decided to ask about the whole 'cat-deer' thing later.

"Mind telling it?"

"Nosy girl." Kureha took a swig of her bottle. "Alright, maybe it'll drug up some memories in that messed up head of yours."

OoOoOoOoO

_Six years earlier in a Kingdom called Drum, the dogs on the snowy streets howled as a man drudged along through an alleyway, coughing with every step._

_"Did you find him!?"_

_"No, sir! We can't find him anywhere!"_

_And they weren't going to find him. Even if they did, they wouldn't catch him. They never did._

_"I just _know _that Hiluluk was behind this! I can't believe it! Not only does he rob me, but he burns my house down! Do something about him! You _are _the National Guard, aren't you!?"_

_But the National Guard could do nothing about the Quack Doctor Hiluluk, as he was too busy sneaking away from them in the alleys, counting his newly acquired money. It wasn't thievery, really. He shoulda just paid Hiluluk! The damn guy was being _way _too stingy, anyways! And it wasn't like he had set his house on fire on purpose, it was an accident! The doctor decided the Guard wasn't coming this way, and sauntered out onto the streets, leaving footprints and coughed up blood behind him._

_He made another stop at a patient's house, bursting down the chimney and into the living space. He checked the man's temperature, shot a tranquilizer at his wife when she went for the guards, mixed up the medicine and accidentally made the man pass out, tried to comfort the crying kid, and jumped out the window when the Guard came in. That probably could've gone better._

_He was limping across the moonlit bridge in the middle of town when he noticed someone was waiting there for him._

_"Heeeeee hee hee hee~! Well, aren't you a happy pappy, young lad." The 133 year-old Doctor Kureha took a swig of sake and glanced at him. "Ain't nothing scarier in this world than a doctor who hasn't got a clue as to what he's doing. If you'd never called yourself a doctor, there'd be about a hundred people whose illnesses would've ended quickly as just a minor cold."_

_Hiluluk scowled at his fellow doctor. "Shut up, you old hag... A doctor wicked enough to take advantage of her patients and rob them blind is the _last _person who I want to be lectured by!"_

_"Don't be hating my style now, kid." Kureha adjusted her position on the stone railing of the bridge. "By the way, did you know that you and I are now the only doctors in this country aside from the MD-20?"_

_The MD-20. The 20 personal doctors of King Wapol, and the only ones allowed to practice medicine in the country. These 20 doctors and the two elders on the bridge were the only medical professionals the citizens of Drum Kingdom had. 20 of them were too expensive for most. Two of them were regarded with fear and derision. They practiced medicine illegally, and therefore were defying the King. The punishment for that crime was death. The punishment for nearly every crime was death. The mad rules of a mad king._

_"Of course," Kureha continued on with her tirade. "Even if it weren't for that, you'd still be an outcast in this land..."_

_"Hmph, as if the doctor-hunts could ever catch me. Just you watch..." Hiluluk wheezed at her, determination etched on his gaunt face. "I'll cure this country one day with my medical skill!"_

_Kureha grinned at him and lifted an eyebrow. "Cure? Don't you mean destroy...?"_

_"There's someone on the bridge, sir!" The Guard had found them, damn!_

_"See you some other time, Quack!" Kureha hopped off the bridge and into the night._

_Hiluluk threw a bomb over his shoulder and raced off in the opposite direction. "Not if I can help it, Highway Woman!" An explosion blossomed behind him as he ran away from the flustered guards._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_He didn't have a name. He had fur. He had muscle. He had a blue nose. He normally had antlers, but at the moment, they were receded into his skull. He had eaten the 'Human Human Fruit', he knew that much. But he didn't know what he was. His herd had rejected him, his blue nose and human mind making him an object of hatred and disgust to them. The humans had shot him and left him there for dead, afraid and disturbed by him. So he wasn't a reindeer, and he wasn't a human, and he had nothing._

_"Hm? Who're you...?"_

_Someone had walked up to him as he lay bleeding out in a blizzard-decorated forest._

_"Severe blood loss from gunshot wounds... He'll die if I don't stop the bleedings soon...!"_

_Human. It was a human. Dressed in a cloak and hat, holding a briefcase. With what little strength he had, the creature turned his head to the side and glared at the human. Go away. Don't come near. Hurt. Humans hurt him. Rejected him. So he'll hurt the humans._

_"No need for angry glare, it'll be alright. I'm here to help you!"_

_Help? The human was going to help?_

_"What are you, by the way...? You don't look human to me... Ah, maybe you're the abominable snowman the whole town's been making a fuss about..."_

_Snowman? That was what the humans who had hurt him had called him._

_"Ah, you're in luck! I just happened to make an ointment that can heal even broken bones 3 days ago." The human reached into his briefcase. There was a noise of soft snow crunching as he tossed aside a gun and began rifling through-_

_Gun. He had a gun. The human had a gun. Gun. Gun. Guns hurt. Guns hurt him. Humans hurt him. Humans with guns hurt him. The human was going to hurt him._

_Animal instinct allowed him to regain some strength as he slammed the human down with a gorilla-like fist. He roared his warning cry as he let another fist connect to the man. The man went down and stayed down, blood caking his face. Good. He wasn't going to let the human kill him. He trotted away on all fours, his body twitching in protest at any movement, blood dripping down through his fur and dotting the snow._

_"Hey you! Wait!" Stupid human. The human should've known better than to mess with him after that. He hadn't even gone more than a few feet away! He turned around to face the human again._

_The human who was standing, legs splayed out, arms shooting out in surrender. He had abandoned all his clothes and was now standing completely naked in the freezing snow, furless, unprotected, snow swirling around him. "I would never, _ever, _shoot you!" The human's limbs shook with cold, and his teeth clattered together. His skin was red as his body tried any way it could to keep warm. "My name is Hiluluk! And I'm a goddamn _doctor_!"_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_He rose up under the covers he had been placed under, now a dwarf compared to his previous size, and looked around. He had passed out from blood loss and pain. But it was no longer cold. It was warm where he was. Bandages were wrapped around all of his body. He hurt, but it was no longer the piercing pain like from before. It was the aching pain of healing wounds. He looked around. To his left was the human, the doctor. He was wrapped in a heavy blanket and sitting on a chair, snoring and occasionally sneezing. His hat was gone now, and he could see the man's cross-shaped hair and gaunt, peach-fuzz-covered face. The creature's stomach rumbled. To his right was a glass of water and a loaf of bread. He picked it up and chomped down on it._

_He didn't have a name. He had fur. He had hooves. He had a blue nose. He had antlers. He was a reindeer who had eaten the 'Human Human Fruit.' He had tears leaking down his face and onto the bread he was eating. And now, for the first time in all his life, he had just been shown kindness._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"What!? You can talk!? The hell were you silent for for 3 whole days, then!?" Hiluluk jumped with surprise as his new little patient had spoken._

_"I thought you might not like me anymore if I talked..." The little reindeer looked down at the floor in shame. "I tried talking to humans once before... But they shot me in return. A reindeer that can talk is just a freak..."_

_Hiluluk scoffed. Just what kinda heartless person would ever do that to this cute little guy, huh? "So what if you can talk? It ain't nothing weird or unique. I can talk too! In fact, I can talk circles around you."_

_The reindeer twitched. It... It was okay for him to talk? He wasn't a freak...? He was normal?_

_Something behind the pair had begun making a hissing noise, and Hiluluk looked at it in fear. "Aghh! Take cover, Chopper! It's gonna blow!""_

_What? Chop-_

_BOOM!_

_An explosion knocked the two out of the cave in the side of the mountain and out onto the snow below. Both of them sat up._

_"Whew! Close call...! Another failure, huh..." Hiluluk said as a pan came flying out of the cave and bonked the reindeer on the head. "You alright?" Hiluluk turned to him and laughed. "Ehe heh... What am I saying, you're already covered in bandages! Ehe heh heh heh heh heh!" Another piece of debris fell down and hit Hiluluk on the head, as the reindeer was also gifted with a piece of debris hitting him as well._

_"...Why did you call me Chopper?"_

_The doctor leaned back and smiled. "Tony Tony Chopper. A fitting name for a reindeer with strong looking horns that could even bring down a tree... Like it? 'Cause that's what I'll call you from now on!"_

_"Chopper..." Chopper tested out his new name. He had just been given a name by this strange, human. It felt right. He laughed like the doctor. Like his friend._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Both you and I are outcasts..." Chopper sat on the bed, watching the doctor mix strange chemicals together in his lab. "We've both endured our fair share of hardship for being the nails that stick out! But don't resent humans for that, Chopper." The reindeer listened attentively, taking in every word the doctor spoke. "The kingdom is sick presently. The king, the government, and even its own people... Their hearts are all ill..." Chopper didn't really understand what Hiluluk meant. How could a kingdom be sick? Regardless, he still listened. "They say there's no cure for a sick kingdom, but I beg to differ! Listen to me, Chopper." The doctor turned to the reindeer, who's ears perked up. "Once upon a time, there was a thief from a certain kingdom in the far west and he was diagnosed with a grave heart disease... Luckily for him, he had all the money in the world to be treated by the finest doctors in the world." Hiluluk looked grave and closed his eyes. "But none could cure the man's disease. They all gave up, calling it incurable. Frustrated that he could do nothing but await his final moment, the man decided to climb a certain mountain. It was then he witnessed a most phenomenal sight that halted his very breath for a moment. Can you guess what he saw?" Before Chopper could even try to guess, the old doctor's face broke out in the most wondrous smile that the reindeer had ever seen on a human. All at once, Hiluluk went from a grave old man telling a sad tale of death to an enthusiastic story-weaver, relating to anyone who would listen to him the most exciting story that had ever reacher his ears. "Cherry Blossoms! A mountain full of the prettiest cherry blossoms he ever saw! And to his surprise, the next time he visited a doctor, he was told thus: 'Your body is completely healthy.' He was healed!" Hiluluk gestured his fists up in victory, a grin of triumph decorating his face. "It was a miracle! It _had _to be a miracle! Or was it!? Could there be a medically sound explanation? Could it be that the man's sheer astonishment had triggered some natural mechanism of his body? That must have been what cured the supposedly incurable disease! Amazing, isn't it!?"_

_Chopper gulped. It _was _amazing. It was the most amazing story he had ever heard. The miracle cherry blossoms that had cured the dying man. He could feel something strange in his chest, a strange feeling in his heart. Was this what the man had felt? If he had some sort of incurable disease at that very moment, it surely would have been cured, too!_

_Hiluluk's smile grew wider, and he slammed a palm against the flag draping the wall behind him. "In other words, there are _no _incurable diseases in this world! So no matter what anyone says, I'll cure this kingdom even if it's the last thing I do! Thus, I shall tout this flag of skull and crossbones in the face of every disease that exists in this world!"_

_"Skull and crossbones...?" Chopper titled his head to the side, confused._

_"That's right! This skull here laughs at the impossible! It's a symbol of unwavering conviction! With this flag, I shall fight on like a true pirate!"_

_"What's a pirate?"_

_Hiluluk smiled proudly at the reindeer, glad to answer any question he asked. "The seas are full of proud men called pirates! You should venture the seas one day too! Then you'll realize how small your worries are!"_

_"Really?" Were his worries really that small?_

_"Cross my heart and hope to die." The man made a small circle between his index finger and thumb. "This island is as small as the circle I'm making when compared to the world."_

_"Really!?" Was the world really that big!?_

_"No wait!" Hiluluk made the circle smaller. "It's more like thiii~iiis small!"_

_"Really!?"_

_"Yup!"_

_It was on that day that Chopper learned how big and beautiful the world was._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_When the doctor next went out, Chopper insisted on coming with. He wanted to see the whole world, but first, he had to see the whole island._

_"Chopper, just go and rest back home." Hiluluk argued with him. "I don't want you to come crying to me when your wounds reopen because of your carelessness."_

_"They won't reopen."_

_"That's for your wounds to decide, not you! I hear Robert is urgently in need of a doctor so I've got to take off."_

_Chopper giggled, ecstatic. "Then I'll help!"_

_The doctor glared back at him. "Fine, do what you want."_

_When they came upon the town, Hiluluk motioned for Chopper to knew down beside him, behind a stone fence, blocking them from view of a company of guards stationed there._

_"What's with the lack of guards these days?" The company's leader asked, frustrated._

_"Well, you see, sir, most of us have been busy mushroom-hunting under the MD-20's orders..."_

_"Mushroom hunting?"_

_"Yes, apparently there's some rare mushroom in this kingdom that can be used to prepare some sort of panacea..."_

_Hiluluk hummed with interest as the two eavesdropped on the conversation._

_"Mushroom?" Chopper asked. What was a mushroom?_

_"Well, aren't I in luck? With so little guards, this job should be a cinch." He adopted a devilish grin on his face, happy with his circumstances. "Let's go, Chopper! Our patient is waiting."_

_All in all, the day could've gone worse. There thankfully weren't any new injuries to his patients this time, and they got away with only minimal property damage, too! The pair arrived home by arguing and getting into a fist fight, Chopper angry over Hiluluk's use of the 'decoy plan', which was the doctor kicking the reindeer into the group of guards chasing them._

_"It's your own damn fault for following me even after I told you not to!"_

_"What kind of doctor kicks his own patient!? I could've died, you know!"_

_"If it weren't for me, you would've already been dead! Damn blue-nosed poor excuse for a reindeer!"_

_"Don't called me blue-nosed!"_

_Eventually, the two tired themselves out with their fighting._

_"Doctor..." Chopper managed to huff out._

_"Hmm?"_

_"That was the first time I've gotten into an argument like this..."_

_Hiluluk grinned at the antlered creature, pride clear on his face. "Eheh heh heh... I suppose it would be. An argument requires a partner, after all. Well, there's a first time for everything. Including..." The old man reached around and tossed something at the reindeer. "Your first present, and your first making-up after fighting."_

_Chopper looked down at his first present. It was a hat shaped like the doctor's, only shorter, pink, and with a white 'X' on the face of it. He sniffed as tears formed in his eyes, moved by the doctor's continued kindness._

_"Crying again?" Hiluluk laughed._

_Chopper clonked him on the head, moved by the doctor's mocking. "I'm not crying!"_

_"Hey, you can't turn into your giant form! That's cheating!"_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_The two continued to live in that mountain cave together, the doctor caring for the reindeer's injuries all the while. Chopper helped Hiluluk with everything, from experiments at the small lab table, to patient visits in the nearby towns, and subsequent escapes from the angry townsfolk. It was the greatest time of either of their lives. All they had in the world was each other, and that's all they really needed. Chopper had never had a friend before, but now, he had a family._

_It was a full year after the two had met that Chopper had recovered._

_"After a full year of treatment, I now declare you're in perfect health!" Hiluluk took the final bandage off of Chopper's face. "Congratulations, Chopper."_

_"Thanks, doctor!"_

_The doctor smiled and turned from the reindeer. "Take care, then... You're discharged from my care."_

_"Huh?" Chopper's smiling face immediately fell. What was the doctor talking about?_

_"You've been fully treated, haven't you!? So I've got no obligations to keep looking after you anymore." There was a strange cracking in Hiluluk's voice that Chopper had never heard before. "Now go spend the rest of your life however you want. Just get out of my lab, I've got work to do."_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Doctor~!" Chopper screamed out through the swirling snow at his home that he had just been kicked out of, tears streaming down his face. "I promise I won't ever be a bother, so please let me in!" He screamed as loud as a reindeer could, his voice echoing around the area. "I promise I'll massage your shoulders everyday, pour you tea, and even do the cleaning! So please! Please let me back in! I've got no friends and no place to go! Please, doctor!"_

_But Hiluluk ignored the young boy's cries, ignored the feeling of his heart being rent in two. But he couldn't ignore the crashing sound of a tree falling down. "Chopper!?"_

_"Look!" Chopper proudly and painfully pointed to the new cut on his forehead, blood streaming down his face. If it meant he could continue to live with the doctor, he would hurt himself as many times as he could. "I'm injured!"_

_A bullet grazed his cheek, taking fur and skin with it._

_"W-What's wrong, doctor...?" What had he done wrong? Why was this happening? Why?_

_"Get lost!" Hiluluk pointed a shotgun at him, his aim shaky. "I don't care if you leave for the seas or whatever! Just make sure you never show your face around here ever again!"_

_And Chopper ran. Chopper ran away from his home, from his only friend, from his family. Hiluluk let loose a sob as tears poured down his face._

_"Forgive me, Chopper...!" He couldn't live with himself if he let Chopper see what would happen to him._

_He supposed it was a good thing, then, that he didn't have that long to live._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_Hiluluk coughed up a handful of blood from his lungs to his palm, and stared off into nothingness. "I'm... Going to die, aren't I...?" He asked his doctor._

_"Hee hee hee hee... Yes..." Kureha wouldn't face him. "Yes, you will..."_

_"In three to four days, I take it?"_

_"Oh? I'm surprised a quack doctor can actually figure out how long he's got."_

_"Is there anything you can do to help me? I'm sure with your skill, you can manage to even extend it, if even just a tiny bit longer."_

_Kureha lifted up her sunglasses to get a good look at the quack doctor. "Still can't let it go? It might be a lot easier and less painful if you just bit the dust already." She laughed._

_"I still have work left to finish." Hiluluk glowered. "I only need a little more time... I _have _to finish the work I've spent over 30 years on."_

_Kureha laughed again and sauntered over to her fellow doctor. "If you want to live so badly, why don't you go to that country out in the far west again? Maybe there, you can see your little miracle Cherry Blossoms again. The ones that saved the great thief Hiluluk."_

_Hiluluk gritted his teeth and turned his gaze away from her. "There's no use for that, because I'll bring the Cherry Blossoms here to this island instead!"_

_The older woman let out one short, derisive bark at that. "Ridiculous... Did you forget this is a Winter Island, where it's freezing cold all year long? Ain't no Cherry Blossoms ever gonna bloom here!"_

_"They _will _bloom!" The quack bit back at her. "Those Cherry Blossoms not only saved the worthless life of a crook, but cleansed his very soul... I was personal witness to its miraculous healing powers!" He clenched his weakening, dying fists, the hands that had stolen so much, and the hands that he would use to give so much back. "Such miracles are _indeed _a reality in this world of ours! And I want to prove it on this island, where I was born! I'll show that it's possible to save anyone in this world! But I need time... Just a little more time...!"_

_"You just don't know when to call it quits, do ya?" Kureha tutted and shook her head at her foolish old friend. "What you're trying to do is neither medicine nor science." She was aware of the small, reindeer-like creature staring through her window, but didn't do anything about it. "Even if Cherry Blossoms did bloom here, the people will remain unchanged." She turned back, and the reindeer was gone. "By the way, what is that weird monster that seems to be following you?"_

_"What!? It's following me?"_

_"Looks like it. It's been lurking outside my house ever since you came. It's been trying to keep itself hidden..."_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_Chopper ran as fast as he could, and then some. The snow kicked up behind him as he dashed through it. Not paying attention to anything but his racing thoughts, he slammed right into a tree. Undaunted, he took off again, slamming into tree after tree, and each time getting up to move again._

_So the doctor was dying. Chopper could have never guessed that. And the doctor was actually the sick man from the cherry blossom story. That, to be honest, Chopper had suspected, but he never brought it up. The doctor was such a kind man, in his own way. He had kicked Chopper out because he didn't want the reindeer to see his only friend die. Even though it hurt him so much, he did it anyways, so Chopper didn't have to get hurt._

_But the doctor wasn't going to die. Chopper wouldn't let him. The door to the lab was unlocked when he arrived. Tearing apart the bookshelf, he quickly found the book he was looking for. He grabbed some other supplies to sustain him for a few days and put everything in a blue backpack. The doctor had always said it wasn't stealing if you were gonna give it back. Then, he was off._

_He trekked through the frozen tundra of the Drum Kingdom. He jumped over hills and he walked through the darkest caves. He walked over thin, cracking ice and he crawled along sheer cliffs. He fearlessly bounded through every obstacle in his way, only one thing on his mind. The doctor. He was doing it all for the doctor. Even when he came upon his old herd, the one that had kicked him out because of how he looked and who he was, and even when he shook with fear and his instincts told him to run away, and even when the leader of the herd kept ramming him with those sharp, massive antlers, he refused to stop. He pressed on through it all, through all the cold and blood and pain. For the doctor._

_And he finally came upon his goal. The healing mushroom he had heard about nearly a year ago. The Amiudake Mushroom was right before him. Just past the widest, deepest ravine he had ever seen. How was he going to get over there?_

_Behind him was his old, enraged herd, about to attack him again. In front of him was a near-bottomless ravine. There was no way he could jump it, he would get himself killed. Chopper thought about only one thing, though._

_The doctor. He was doing it all for the doctor._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_It had been a week since he had kicked Chopper out. Kureha had bought him some time, but not much. He had to do it then. He had to._

_There were two weak knocks at the door. Who the hell could it be? He hadn't sent for anyone or anythi-_

_"C-Chopper!" What was waiting behind the door for him nearly made his heart fail. "W-What happened to you!?"_

_He was caked in blood. His left antler had broken off somewhere, and was nowhere to be seen. His left eye was swollen shut, and his left leg was broken and bent at an angle it shouldn't have been. As Chopper hobbled forward, he held out a mushroom to Hiluluk and said only one thing: "Mushroom."_

_"That's... The Amiudake Mushroom..." The dying man couldn't believe his eyes. "Did you... Pick it for my sake...?"_

_"Please live, doctor... I want to become a doctor too!" His eyes began to water as he begged for what couldn't possibly happen. "So please live and teach me how to become one! That is, if it's possible for a reindeer to learn..."_

_A strange noise escaped the doctor's lips, then. One Chopper had never heard from the man, but had heard from himself many times. A sob. "Of course you can, Chopper." Hiluluk's voice rumbled with emotion as he embraced the reindeer and held him tight. "How could someone so kind be unable to become a doctor...!?"_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Well?" A newly bandaged Chopper leaned in excitedly. "Does the Amiudake Soup taste good?"_

_Hiluluk stuck his tongue out in disgust, "Blegh- It tastes terrible!"_

_"WHAA~~AAT!?"_

_"Eheh heh heh heh..." The doctor laughed at his young protege's surprised face. "Don't worry, good medicine is supposed to taste bad. That's just proof of their efficiency. Why, I can already feel energy surging through my whole body! Thank you very much, Chopper!"_

_Chopper's face lit up with relief, then he turned to the lab station behind him. "Doctor, what's that?" One of the globes was filled with a swirling pink substance. "That's the first time I've seen it do that."_

_Hiluluk turned to where the young reindeer was pointing, and let out a cry. "This is it! This is the reaction I've been waiting for! I've been waiting over 30 years for this!" He held his hands over the globe, as if it were a crystal ball that held his future within. "I did it, Chopper! My research is complete! I can bring the Cherry Blossoms to this Winter Island now!"_

_The old doctor opened the door to his home and stepped halfway through the door. "Now, stay put while I go out for a little bit. You're in far more critical condition than I am, what with all those wounds of yours!"_

_Satisfied that the doctor was going to be alright now, Chopper nodded. "Alright."_

_Hiluluk slammed the door, saying, "Then I'll be off!"_

"The doctor was really happy..." _The little reindeer thought to himself, giggling with pride. _"I actually cured somebody!"

_"Hey, Chopper!" Hiluluk opened the door again, as if he had mundanely forgotten something before leaving. "You're going to be a wonderful doctor! I guarantee it!" His face beamed, and Chopper returned his smile._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Did you hear, Kureha?" Hiluluk waggled a finger at his associate. "This country's in a real crisis right now."_

_Kureha peaked one eye at him and scoffed. "Yeah, I heard. The MD-20s have _apparently _all collapsed from some illness. Ridiculous... Just better to leave things be, It'll solve itself sooner or later." The older woman didn't waste any time getting to the point. "So? What did you come here for today? Couldn't be to say a word of thanks, right? And you still have two weeks left to live..."_

_"Actually," Hiluluk started, "I have a reque-"_

_"I refuse."_

_"I haven't even told you what it is!" The dying man screeched at her._

_Kureha lifted her ever-present bottle of sake up to her lips. "Well, none of your requests ever pay out for me." Regardless, she caught the bag that Hiluluk proceeded to toss at her. When she spilled the contents out onto her palm, however, her confusion grew. "The hell? Is this dirt or something?"_

_The quack's face broke out in one of his world-famous grins. "That, my dear Kureha, is the result of over 30 years of my medical research! It's the panacea that will cure even the sick heart of this country!"_

_Before she could even question his sanity, Hiluluk explained the workings behind his bag of dirt._

_"I see..." Kureha droned when he was finished. "Congratulations, then. That's quite the pointless 30 years you've lived. So... Why're you giving this to me?"_

_"I don't have enough of that dust, nor any time left. So I want you to make the cherry blossoms bloom in my stead."_

_"What!? Why the hell do I have to do such a ridiculous th-"_

_"And one more thing!" The doctor continued. "I want you to teach Chopper medicine! He wants to become a doctor!"_

_"Enough is enough!" Kureha shouted at her dying patient. "Do you think you're in any position to demand things from me!?"_

_Hiluluk bowed as low as he could. "He may be a naive reindeer, but I _know _he can become a great doctor one day! He's a good-natured kid...! He even risked his life to make me some medicine...! So please, teach him how to become a doctor!"_

_The woman had had enough. "Get out of my house! You've tested my patience for far too long!" She poured out to him. "Demanding _me _to continue your ridiculous research and look after your weird pet!? You should know better than to think I'd take pity on you just because you're on the verge of death! Now get out!"_

_So he was literally tossed out. "Yes..." The quack doctor started, staring at the slammed-shut-door of his friend's house. "I _do _know better than anyone how you'll act... I'll be counting on you, then..." Hiluluk shakily stood on his weakening knees. "Eh eh eh eh... I know just how kind one needs to be to pursue a life of saving others... Doctors are all good-natured people in the end." And Doctor Hiruluk took one final look at Doctor Kureha's home before turning away. "Take good care of Chopper..."_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_Kureha turned and turned around the bag in her fingertips as she turned and turned around the mind in her skull. "After all that talk about saving this country you give up and ask me instead...? Are you saying you can't accomplish anything, even with the two weeks you still have left...?" No, that hypothesis was incorrect. Even after years of her telling him that he was a hopeless quack, that man never gave up. "That's not like you at all..."_

"-Nor any time left-"

_"Don't tell me... That idiot couldn't possibly be thinking of...!"_

"Did you hear, Kureha? This country's in a real crisis right now."

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"It's Doctor Hiluluk! Arrest him!_

_"As if I'd let you!" Said doctor protested against his screaming pursuers and screaming lungs. He ran towards the lifts up to the castle, and the crowd surrounding them. "Move it, you lot!"_

_"Doctor Hiluluk!?"_

_The quack pulled out two bombs and held his briefcase in between his teeth._

_"He's carrying bombs! Run for it!"_

_"Take this!" Hiluluk threw the bombs towards the crowd, scattering them._

_"That quack is out of control!"_

_The doctor ran into the lift and pushed a pistol up against the controller's cheek. "Get this lift up to the castle!"_

_"Wha-"_

_"I said take me up to the castle!"_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_Kureha slammed open the door. "Where's Hiluluk!?"_

_"Ah- Oh no!" A small reindeer in the back ran to hide._

_"No need to hide, I ain't gonna eat you. And I already know who you are. Just tell me where Hiluluk is right now!"_

_Chopper twitched to a stop, splaying his arms out to his left. "T-The Doc said he'd be out for a bit... He's all recovered from his illness, so maybe he's in the town..."_

_"Recovered? That ain't no illness you can 'recover' from. It's incurable with the medicine available today. Didn't you hear it yourself while eavesdropping at my place?"_

_"B-But," The reindeer waggled a mushroom at her, "Doc said he got all better after drinking the soup made from this!"_

_The old woman's eyes widened. "Is that... The Amiudake Mushroom!?"_

_Chopper grinned, proud of himself. "It's the ingredient for a panacea, so he's all better now! He can live and teach me how to become a doctor!"_

_Kureha could've sworn she felt something in her chest snap. "Hiluluk..."_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Can't this thing go up any faster!?" It felt like his insides were killing him. "I don't have any time left! Hurry it up! I'm fighting for every last minute and second here, so move it!"_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_Kureha's fist caught Chopper on the forehead, and he went spinning through the air and to the floor._

_"You stupid reindeer!"_

_He got back up and covered the fresh wound with his hooves. Hurt him. The human hurt him. She swung her other fist out and sent him spinning down again._

_"Wha-"_

_"That mushroom you fed him..." Kureha gasped and struggled to explain through her tears. "Was a poison mushroom! Eating one will kill you within an hour!"_

_"That can't be... I even looked it up in a book." Chopper looked around for an answer. "It's a mushroom that can heal everything!"_

"That's right! This skull here laughs at the impossible! It's a symbol of unwavering conviction! With this flag, I shall fight on like a true pirate!"

_The reindeer grabbed a book and flipped open to the page on the Amuidake Mushroom, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. "See, look! The picture for this mushroom has a skull next to it!"_

_Kureha froze._

_"Doc even said he's all better now! So there's no way he could die, you liar!"_

"He's a good-natured kid."

_The old woman sighed and placed her face in her hand. "That was just him appreciating your efforts... But you have to understand... Skull and Crossbones are a symbol for poison!"_

_"You're lying!"_

_"I'm not lying..." Kureha knelt down to the reindeer's level. "Listen to me. There's no magical panacea that can cure everything in this world. That's precisely why we need doctors! Kindness alone can't save people! You need knowledge and medical skill to go along with it! Without it, you can't save a single person!"_

_A wracking sob worked its way up Chopper's throat._

"Did you... Pick it for my sake...?"

_The sob broke its way out of Chopper and into the air._

_"You foolish little reindeer..."_

_And with an outcry of emotion, the reindeer's heart broke._

_"He won't ever return to this house... He's already decided on the castle as his grave."_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Even in my last moments, I have to do all I can do to save the sick and suffering! That is my duty as a doctor!"_

_Hiluluk had made it to the castle._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Stop right there! What're you planning to do!?"_

_With a cry, Chopper made a mad dash out the door._

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Guide me to where the sick are! I've come to cure the MD-20!" Hiluluk declared, and immediately coughed out a glob of blood. Looking up from the hand he coughed into, his eyes widened. "What...!? What's the meaning of this..."_

_"Mahahaha! Still can't realize it!?" The King, Wapol, laughed at the quack doctor. "This is a trap! The MD-20 are perfectly fine, as you can see for yourself!"_

_It was true. Behind the King, Hiluluk could see all 20 of the King's private doctors, perfectly healthy._

_"All you've come here for is to meet your death, Doctor Hiluluk!"_

_Hiluluk could see one of Wapol's most trusted men- He could vaguely remember his name as Dalton- biting his lip in shame and anguish._

_"Your crimes are heavy for defying my royal will for so long! Commence the execution, guards! Take aim!"_

_Hiluluk could see the castle guards leveling rifles at him, he could see 2 more of Wapol's trusted men mocking him._

_"Is that so..." The dying doctor's knees finally gave out on him as tears poured out onto his cheeks. "Thank god. Nobody's sick..."_

_The riflemen all froze. Dalton made some sort of pathetic-sounding noise in the back of his throat. Every single one of the MD-20 stiffened._

_"Here I was, thinking that the country was in crisis... But it was all just a little trick instead..."_

_The cruel king laughed at the quack doctor. "Mahaha! If this country really were in crisis, a quack doctor like you would be the last person I'd want to come! Ignore the quack's worthless banter and shoot!"_

_"Stop." Hiluluk held up a hand and all obeyed. "You people can't possibly kill me."_

_"What!?"_

_As the doctor's face began to blotch an unhealthy purple, he broke out in a grin. "When do you think a person dies...?"_

_Far away, but not that far, a reindeer panted through the snow, crying the doctor's name out into the apathetic flakes._

_"When his heart is pierced by a bullet? No... When he is inflicted with an incurable disease? No...!"_

_The reindeer jumped up to the lift platform, and with perfect balance, ran across the rope up to the castle._

_"When he drinks soup made from a poisonous mushroom...? No!"_

_Kureha sat back at Chopper and Hiluluk's house, staring at the bag that would cure the wretched island that she lived on. The townspeople all pointed at the reindeer who ran up the lift's rope._

_"A man dies when he is forgotten!" The dying man opened his briefcase and pulled out a cup and a beaker of liquid. "Even if I'm gone, my dream will come true. The sick hearts of this country's citizens will be saved...!" He looked over to his side and crooked an eyebrow. "Why the tears, Dalton?"_

_And like the snow, tears fell down a man's face, a man who has served a sick king he had lost all hope for long ago, and was just realizing it now. "Can the same be said for the country as well...?"_

_"Eh eh... As long as there are those to inherit the Will..."_

_"Mahahaha! The hell are you crying for, Dalton!?"_

_"A monster shall soon come here." Hiluluk grinned in love and pride. "He is my son, so don't lay a hand on him." He rose his cup into the air to toast the dying country. _"Don't worry, Chopper. I won't die from your mushroom..." _And Doctor Hiluluk drew in his last breath to shout into the air: "Truly! What a spectacular life it's been!" And he drank. _"Thank you, Chopper."

**_BOOM_**

_An explosion rocked the mountaintop the castle was situated on. The force knocked the whole of the viewing party back several feet. A single top hat floated down and came to rest in front of a single reindeer._

_ "Mahahahaha! He blew himself up on his own!" The sick king bellowed out a healthy laugh. "Maaaaahahahaha! A fitting end for the looniest loon I ever knew! Mahahaha!"_

_Chopper felt a rage like he had never felt before. With a feral cry, he morphed into a human-like form and charged forward to kill the man who would dare mock his father._

_All at once, the bull-human form of Dalton rushed forward to stop the reindeer-human form of the monster._

_"Wait!" Dalton grappled the reindeer down onto his back as cheers erupted behind him. "Get away from here! If you can't even beat me, there's no way you can take on the rest of them!" The cheers stopped. "If it's about them laughing at Hiluluk's death, I apologize...! But you'll only die a dog's death by jumping in! Don't-" The regretful man sobbed as his tears dripped down unto Chopper's face. "Don't become another sacrifice to this country! I beg of you!"_

_And the monster slipped out from under Dalton- who reverted to his human form- and ran away from the scene._

_"How dare you let him escape, Dalton!" Wapol raged at his treacherous underling. "You realize what the punishment for defying a king's order is, don't y-"_

_"Enough! Don't _you _realize!? The only man who wished to save this country died just now! While others have long given up on this country and thought it hopeless, there was one kind doctor who surprisingly endeavored to save it! But that man has now perished!"_

_"So what if one quack doctor died!? If you're going to apologize, I suggest you do it now, Dalton."_

_"I now see clearly the fate of this kingdom... Inevitable ruin."_

_"What!?"_

_"As long as we continue to trample the people beneath our feet, this country can never be fixed! No matter how advanced the doctors of this country and their medicine are, this country's doomed fate shall not change!" Dalton took a deep breath and said the thing he'd been wanting to say for a long time: "Because there is no cure for a fool!"_

_King Wapol rumbled with anger. "How dare you... You should be well aware of what happens to those who truly anger me... Right, Dalton...?"_

_OoOoOoOoO_

_"Please! Teach me to become a doctor!"_

_Chopper waved his father's skull and crossbone flag as he stood behind Hiluluk's makeshift grave._

_"I'll become the panacea myself! I'll become a doctor that can cure anything! Because- Because there are no incurable diseases in this whole world!"_

_Kureha stared at the reindeer. "Doctorine... That's what you're to address me as from now on..."_

_OoOoOoOoO_

"So I've been raising him ever since." Kureha took a swig and turned towards her patient. "So, you remember anythi- Hey...!"

The girl was crying. Tears streaming down her face, she looked as if she held the sorrow of a lifetime of torment.

"Geez, I know it was a sad story, but there's no need to-"

"We have abandoned him."

"...What?"

"The reindeer. We have abandoned him. We have abandoned this country." She buried her face in her hand and brought her knees up to her chest, as if trying to hide from some great shame.

"We have abandoned this world."

OoOoOoOoO

Just the sight of Wapol's face brought a clenching shame to Bear's chest, like the regrets of thousands of generations.

That, and the anger of a thousand suns.

She stepped forward, igniting fireballs in both of her palms. "He's going down."

Before she could even make a move towards him, though, something shot past her.

"**Gum Gum**-" Luffy's arm stretched back- farther than humanly possible- and then shot forward, his fist giving a direct hit to Wapol's face, causing the king to fly backwards, and his lackeys to shout his name in worry. "-**Bullet**!"

"Huh? Those guys again?" Sanji had walked out onto the field. "What're they doing here?"

"Wait, you know these guys?" Is what Bear wanted to ask him, but she was too busy picking her jaw up off the floor.

Wapol's lackeys managed to catch him by the legs before he went flying off into oblivion, though he was slammed into the side of the mountain.

Luffy, meanwhile, was walking towards the trio through the powder snow he had kicked up. "You three sure were a big pain in my ass back then..." An absolute look of glee came upon his face as he lifted a fist up to eye-level. "Shi shi shi shi! But now I don't need to hold back anymore~!"

Bear recovered from her shock enough to run over to the pirate. "Hey, hey, Straw-hat! I got two questions for you!"

Luffy turned to her and nodded. "Yeah, sure, I got time." He said as Wapol's two flunkys began delivering some speech to them.

"Okay, one: How do you know these guys?"

"Oh!" Luffy scowled. "That guy tried to eat my ship!"

"He-" Bear started. "He tried to eat your ship?"

Straw-hat pouted and again nodded. "Yeah, he did! What a jerk, right!?"

Bear threw a questioning look at him and was about to interrogate him even more, when-

"How dare you treat King Wapol of Drum with such disrespect and brutality! And how dare you ignore his most trusted advisors and allies!" One of them, an afro'd man, interrupted.

"That's right! We were talking back there, and you completely ignored us! Not only is that disrespectful and rude, but you are in the presence of _royalty!_" Chastised the second one, a man Bear could only describe as 'zig-zaggy.' "This island and the lives of its inhabitants are subject to the very whims of his regal self!"

Bear scoffed at the trio. "I don't care who you think you are, you aren't deserving of _any _sort of respect! I've seen the people of this country, and they are in _no way _well taken care of. For whatever reason, you left this island and abandoned your duty and your people." She pointed an accusing finger at Wapol, who was still down. "You're not a King. You're simply some cowardly brat who happened to be born into power!"

"Yeah, she's right!" Luffy added from behind her. "You guys are annoying as hell!"

"Not exactly what I said, but..." Bear turned back to Luffy. "And, my second question- How the _flameo _did you stretch like that!?"

"Oh, I ate the Gum Gum Fruit, I'm a rubber man." He answered like it was nothing, stretching the side of his mouth out. "And what's a flamingo got to do with anything?"

"She said 'flameo', not flamingo, you dolt." Sanji grumbled from the side. "More importantly, aren't you cold with just that on?"

"Oh!" The rubber man jolted, realization dawning on him.

"Yeah," Bear added, "You should go get a coa-"

"Wait, that guy's a king!? I thought they were just pirates!"

"You _just _realized that!?" Sanji screeched at him.

"Where has your mind been for the past five minutes, Straw-Hat!?" Bear yelled back.

"Fools... It seems you've only now realized the folly of your actions." Afro-lacky said darkly from the 'alone and pretentious royal' corner of the scene. "But that is how it is. The man before you is none other than the rightful master of Drum, cast-"

"Holy cow, its cold!" Straw-hat finally exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's what we were trying to say!" Bear shot back.

"It's minus 50 degrees celsius." Chopper helpfully contributed.

"They're ignoring us!" Zigzag-lacky noted.

Then, without warning, Wapol finally rose up from where he was laying with a yell. "Mahaha... Mahahaha..." Blood dripped from the royal's nose. "Strawhat...! You've ticked me off big time... I swear I'll devour every last piece of you now..."

"Uhhh, might want to save the tough-talk. He's gone back inside to get a jacket." Sanji pointed out.

"He's not here!?"

"Hey, blondie." Bear began ignoring the increasingly angry former-king yet again to ask Sanji a question. "What did he mean by 'Gum Gum Fruit'? What kinda fruit make you stretch?"

"Eh?" The blonde titled his head to the side, smoking blowing of the cigarette in his mouth. "A Devil's Fruit, of course."

"Devil's Fruit? I've never heard of that." She crossed her arms and looked to where Luffy ran back into the castle. "So, what does that make him?"

Sanji looked surprised and confused at her lack of knowledge on Devil's Fruits, but plastered a grin on his face all the same. "It makes him a monster."


	3. Jolly Roger

Bear could hardly believe the situation she was in. There she was, on top of a practically vertical mountaintop, in front of a prestigious castle in the middle of a tundra, without any memories of who she was or how she got there. To her left, a man who smoked a cigarette, with swooping blond locks that hung over his left eye, and an eyebrow that curled out into a spiral, the man's name being Sanji. The boy who had just left to get a coat, a young face full of naivety along with a small scar under his left eye, dark-olive skin like hers, messy black hair under a red-ribboned straw-hat, his name being Luffy. To her right, a small, reindeer-like creature with a pink top-hat decorated with an 'X' on the front, and magenta shorts on, named Chopper. And his teacher, a 139-year-old doctor with the body of a 20-year-old woman and a mouth like one too, named Kureha.

And in front of her? A dark-skinned man with an afro on his head (and his fists?), dressed like a court jester. Next to him, a tall man with large, zigzag lips and a face that was made to look down on people; he apparently shared his friend's fashion sense, and had a bow and arrow strapped to his back. And between the two was the selfish, disgraced, King Wapol, who wore the pelt of some creature that had large nostrils and flat tusks. The man himself was short and stout, with bright purple hair sticking up on his sides, wearing a metal jaw and jacket. Behind the group was what Bear assumed was their steed, an animal exactly like the one Wapol wore.

Bear had only just met these people, but her instincts told her she couldn't let the royal trio inside the castle. She didn't know why, but something inside her said that it was her job, her duty, to make sure that they didn't get back into power, back on the throne of the Kingdom that they had abandoned and left to ruin. She had no memories, no guidance from her peers, only her gut; so that's the thing that would decide her actions.

Wapol began to speak. "Dalton's corpse is below, and here we have that rebel hag, as well as the Straw-Hat Pirates. Mahaha! What a perfect chance this is to remove all the thorns in my side with one fell swoop!"

"Indeed, Your Majesty." Zigzag praised his King. "It'll make for a perfect rebirth of Drum Kingdom. Allow us to quickly dispose of these nuisances, Your Majesty."

"I don't know what you were thinking," Afro addressed, "But you've sure got some guts appropriating His Majesty's castle for your own use, Doctor Kureha!"

"I don't see his name on it!" Bear shot back at them. Hearing the words 'Dalton's corpse' had made her anger burn brighter. She'd never even met the man, but from what she heard from Kureha, he was a soldier of Wapol's who had turned against him after finally having enough of his cruel reign. The fact that they had killed him made her even more enraged.

"Heeeheehee!" Kureha laughed at the disgraced King and his subjects. "Personally, I couldn't care less about this crumbling piece of heap you call a castle... But my stubborn lil' friend here was insistent about making a proper grave for Hiluluk here, you see." She nodded at Chopper, who began to morph into a sasquatch-like creature.

"Your Majesty, that thing is-!"

"Yes, it's the same monster that came here, following Hiluluk back then!"

"Doc wanted to save this country." Chopper stood with a hardened resolve, a look of resolve in his eyes. "That's why I won't let you set a single foot in this castle! I won't let the likes of you," He screamed out to the blustery snow, "knock down Doc's Will!" Behind him stood the castle, his father's grave, and- Bear noticed- what she assumed to be Hiluluk's flag; a skull with cherry blossom's floating around it.

"Same goes for me!" Bear widened her stance, holding her arms in front of her, muscles contracting, ready to strike at a moment's notice. "There's no way you're getting past here!"

"Mahahaha... Excellent!" Wapol's gaze hardened. "All the people I want to kill, right here, in one place! As for you, girl, I don't know who you are, but if you choose to defy me, then so be it! You shall share the same fate as them!" He turned to his subjects. "No need for any mercy, Chess and Kuromarimo! Slaughter them all!"

"What's his beef with us? I couldn't give a rat's ass about these losers..." Sanji scoffed and turned to Kureha. "So, are you gonna fight too, Granny?"

After delivering Sanji a quick kick to the head for calling her 'Granny', Kureha said, "I'll lend you a hand if you can't handle it by yourselves."

Rubbing the new bump on his head, Sanji turned to Bear. "But why are you fighting, Ma'am? You seem like you don't know these guys..."

Not taking her eyes of off her opponents, Bear simply stated, "Responsibility."

"Hmph! Turning a holy castle into a grave for some quack doctor!?" Afro- Who's name was actually Kuromarimo- stepped forward. "I'll start by killing you first, Doctor Kureha!" Then he sprung up like a boxer and flung his fist forward. "**Electric Marimo**!" Out of his fist flew... An Afro!?

As Chopper cried "Doctorine!", Bear was caught completely off-guard by the unusual attack. The afro was about to collide with Kure-

With a puff of smoke, and graceful strength, Sanji's leg struck out and stopped the afro in its tracks. "Oi, oi..." He turned a steely gaze towards Kuromarimo. "What kinda Afro-Bro goes around throwing his afros at a lady?"

Bear let go of a breathe she didn't know she was holding. "Nice block, Eyebrow."

As Sanji let out some sort choking noise at the word 'eyebrow', a sneer formed on Kuromarimo's face. "Gotcha."

"W-Wha!?" The blonde began shaking his leg up and down in panic. "It won't come off! The hell's up with this afro!? Is it because of static electricity!?"

"Y-You're joking, right!?" Bear finally tore her eyes away from her foe.

"Not at all." Said foe confirmed. "That afro's full of static, and there's more where that came from." He plucked another clump from his own hair, eyeing the already afro'd Sanji. "**Electric** **Marimo**!"

Bear, ready for his attack this time, jumped in front of Sanji and swung her leg around, sending a blast of air at the incoming afros. Unfortunately, they seemed to ride along her leg, one of them sticking to her foot, one to her arm, and one hitching a ride back to the blonde.

"What the-" Bear was thrown off by her sudden new accessories. "Son of a tiger-seal! Now they're on me!"

"Oi, reindeer!" Sanji flailed his limbs around a bit more, while Chopper ran over to help.

"Groooooss, I think they're moving!"

"Ah, crap, now it's stuck on me! I'm giving it back!"

"What!? Don't give it back! At least take one for yourself!"

"Yeah, c'mon Chopper, sharing is caring!"

"_This isn't caring, Bear!_"

Before long, they were a mess of limbs and afros.

"Hmph, talk about poor teamwork." The other lackey, Chess, strung an arrow on his bow, which promptly ignited. "Let me tell you before-hand... Those Marimo-Afros might not be in the best taste, but they sure do burn easily."

"Crap! He's gonna burn the Afros!" Sanji warned.

"Time for the decoy plan!" Chopper pushed all the afros onto Bear and Sanji and then sped off in the other direction.

"_We're _the decoys!?"

"Look out, you idiot!" Bear grabbed Sanji's arm to pull him out of the way, but the arrow hit its mark anyway. All of the afros on the two ignited into flames. "Stand still!" She pulled up all the snow around them, melting it, and doused both herself and the blonde with water.

Meanwhile, Chopper had taken his chance to run up to Chess, and was about to slam a fist into him. "Get out of this country!"

"Move it, Chess!" Wapol shoved his subject to the side and opened his mouth wide. Wider than any normal human could. Wide enough to swallow Chopper.

"Crap!"

"Chopper!"

"Bleeding hog-monkeys, what _are you people!?_"

"Ah, nice and toasty!"

Bear looked back to see that Straw-Hat had returned, this time with a coat. Sanji, too, had noticed. "Luffy! Grab onto my leg from there!"

"Your leg? Sure, why not?" Luffy let both his arms stretch back behind him. He snapped them forward, and grabbed onto Sanji's outstretched leg. "Like this!?"

"Good, now don't let go!" The blonde flung his leg forward. "**Armee De L'air**..."

"Oh? Cool!"

"**Rubber Shot**!"

The rubber boy flew forward like a missle. "I'll add some more force by spinning!" He twisted his body around, making him look like a flying drill, which then slammed into Wapol, who spit out the gobbled-up Chopper. Wapol went flying straight into his steed, who then flew off the mountain-top and into the sky.

"Heh," Sanji blew out a puff of smoker and shook the ashes off of his cigarette. "Not bad, not bad..."

"T-Thanks..." Chopper had recovered and dusted himself off. "You two are pretty amazing..."

"Are you two even _real_?" Unlike Chopper, Bear was flabbergasted at what had just happened.

"Oi, Luffy! That's Nami-san's jacket, isn't it!?"

"Yeah... Whoa, look! That dude's still alive!"

"Well, take it off right now!"

"That arctic-hippo flying off..." Bear looked out into the distance. "That seems way too familiar to me to be a coincidence. Like, I'm getting a major sense of deja-vu."

"Arctic-hippo? You mean, that was like, a special form of hippo?"

"Huh? What do you mean? It's an arctic-hippo." Bear squinted her eyes at the retreating form of the animal. "Though, now I guess it's a _flying _arctic-hippo."

"Luffy! Take! Nami-san's! Coat off! Now!"

"I don't get what you're talking about! A hippo is just a hippo! Ah, wait, you mean it was a mystery hippo!?"

"There's no mystery about it, it was-" Bear looked back to where the arctic-hippo was. "Wapol's back up, guys."

The King was indeed back up, and spitting out blood onto the snow. "Let me show you... The true power of the Chomp Chomp Fruit!"

"He can still stand up after taking that hit?" Kureha commented from the sidelines.

"Gotta admit, guy's pretty strong." Luffy stated.

"Chess! List my meals since this morning..."

"At once, Your Majesty!" Chess pulled a notebook out of nowhere in particular and began reading. "Let's see... One butter-sautéed cannon, one _raw _cannon, a cannonball, and gunpowder salad, and one grilled house from the village."

Bear blinked once. "What."

"The hell does he eat?" Luffy looked a little worried for the man's stomach.

"Calling him an omnivore would be the understatement of the decade..." Sanji added.

"What's all that stuff have to do with his Chomp Chomp thing, though?" Bear braced herself. "Be ready for anything."

"The very things I consume can become my new flesh and blood! **Chomp Chomp Shock**!"

Bear gasped. She was certain the she would never forget this sight in all her life. The very nature of the being before her sent her mind reeling. It was as if the very fabric of space and time had been torn asunder by the mere presence of the thing that should not be.

"**Wapol House**!"

Kuromarimo jumped in the air, ecstatic at their now assured victory. Chess merely crossed his arms, his heart swelling with pride for his wondrous king.

"He..." Bear gulped, unable to grasp the true form of Wapol's technique. "He...!" Her arms shook. She fell to her knees. And began to laugh. "He turned himself into _a house_!" Tears streamed from her eyes and she held her gut, unable to stop her laughter. "A h-house! Ahahahahahaha! A house!"

"Jeez, lady, you're the one who said 'be ready for anything'." Sanji raised his curly eyebrow at her.

"I-I know, but look at him! It's just the house, and then his face on the roof, and- and the arm-cannon things-" She snickered and flapped her arms for emphasis, "And then his little legs! Oh- Oh sweet spirits save me!" She clung onto Sanji for dear life. "S-Someone hold me!"

"W-What!? Oh, no, I couldn't! I-I mean, we just met, and-" The blushing blonde tried to gently pry Bear off, but couldn't bring himself to even touch her arms.

"What are you talking about!?" Luffy yelled at her. "That thing is awesome!"

"Oh dear Yue _are you serious_?" Bear turned to Wapol. "Hey- Hey Wapol! Which cannon is the butter-sauteed one!?"

"Oh? It's this one, here on the right- I mean _how dare you_!" A vein popped in Wapol's head. "I thought at first you were in awe of my awesome might, but it turns out you just choose to disrespect the King even more! Well, you haven't even seen my true power yet! Behold, my secret royal technique! **Chomp Chomp Factory**!" He promptly turned to his two subjects and snatched them up into his mouth.

"What in the name of the moon in the sky is _wrong with you_!?" Bear had recovered from her laughing fit and was now horrified. She could hear the two's cries of pain as Wapol gnawed on them, looking bored.

"He's a cannibal!" Luffy accused. "He's cannibalizing his friends!"

The cannibal swallowed his meal, and shot steam out of his arms. "Witness the miraculous combination! Behold!" The door on his stomach slowly creaked open, and a figure could be seen inside.

"This form of ours..." The figure spoke with two menacing voices. "Is Drum Kingdom's strongest warrior..." It stepped out, to reveal, "**Chessmarimo**!"

"Oh, they just merged into one." Bear wiped the worried sweat of her brow.

"Woooooowww, that's amazing!" Luffy stared in awe.

"No, it's not!" Sanji chastised.

"Don't let your guard down..." Kureha warned. "If those fellas were actually weak, this country's citizens wouldn't have put up with the ridiculous doctor banishments for so long..."

"Article 1 in the Constitution of Drum Kingdom: 'Those who defy the King's Will are to be executed!'" Wapol yelled in arrogance. "This is the foundation of this country! Because _I _am the State, and the State is _I_! This castle and everything on this island is mine and mine alone...!" He aimed his arm-cannon at the flag on top of the castle, and fired a cannonball. "So there's no way in hell I'm going to stand by while some quack doctor's flag is hanging on top of my castle! It's defiling my entire royal abode!"

"Hey!" Bear looked from the falling flag to Wapol. "What the- the hell was that for!?"

"Hey reindeer, is that flag..." Luffy addressed Chopper, but the reindeer couldn't hear him. He was looking up to where the flag once stood, his eyes full of shock. Anger. Horror. Sadness. Luffy's gaze hardened.

"_How dare you do that to Doc's flag_!" Chopper exploded out. He slid under Chessmarimo and grappled onto Wapol. "Doc even tried to save you before he died!" He wound up for a punch, but then stopped.

"What?" Bear didn't understand. Was Chopper showing mercy?

"I... I won't hit you! But you better get out of this country this instant!"

"What kinda crap are you spoutin', Chopper!? Do you really think he can be reasoned with!?" Kureha shouted at her pupil.

"Chopper!" Bear yelled out to the reindeer. "I know you're trying to honor the Doctor's memory by showing Wapol mercy, but-"

There was the sound of cannon-fire, and Chopper was down on the ground, scorched and bloodied.

"Chopper!"

"Oh no!" Bear sprinted towards Chopper. Chessmarimo made a move to stop her, but she shot out a column of earth at him, tipping him on his side. The girl scooped the reindeer up in her arms and jumps backwards, propelling herself with air and avoiding a cannonball Wapol sent at her. "Getting yourself killed over someone like him won't honor anything." They landed softly in the snow, and Chopper painfully looked up at Bear. "He's a man who can't understand other people, he can only think of himself. He wouldn't even understand the concept of honor." She pulled up the white flakes around her and began to heal him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry this world is so unbalanced." Were there no good people in this world? No one for others to look to for guidance?

"Hey you, with the big fat mouth!"

"Huh?" Bear looked up to where the voice came from. Luffy was standing on the top spire of the castle, holding up Doctor Hiluluk's flag. His coat sleeve tied the broken pull back to where it once was. "What's he doing up there?"

"A lying poser like you," Luffy shouted down, "Who only played pirates without risking your life _could never understand the true meaning of a Pirate's Flag_!"

Wapol raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"Straw-hat..." Chopper looked at him with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"True meaning...?" Bear looked at Luffy. The naive boy from before was gone. In his place was a man with resolve in his bones.

"The true meaning of that flag? Mahahaha! As if there's any deep meaning behind some stupid fluff that pirates use as decoration!"

"That's exactly why you're just a lying poser!"

"What!?"

"This flag isn't something you pretend-pirates can go around waving, even as a joke!"

"Oh please! You think a king like me goes around playing pirate because he _wants _to!? Stop trying to hold up that eyesore any longer! This is my country and I won't let it be defiled by some idiotic pirate flag! I'll shoot it down however many times it takes!" Wapol followed through on his word, shooting another cannon ball up at the flag.

"Luffy!"

"Watch out!"

"Straw-Hat!"

"I'd like to see you try! A Jolly Roger-" The cannon ball hit its mark, engulfing pirate and flag in an explosion- "Is a symbol of Will!"

"He made a direct hit!" Bear shot up and tried to get a close look.

"Blown up to smithereens, you deluded hippo!" Wapol haughtily laughed at the destruction he reaped.

Bear was sure that, when the smoke cleared, both Luffy and the flag would be gone.

The smoke was blown away.

Monkey D. Luffy stood, holding Doctor Hiluluk's flag high in the sky.

"See? You can't break this flag."

Bear no longer saw Luffy as a crazy little kid who got excited over everything.

"I don't know who's flag this is..."

She saw him as a leader.

"But as a flag backed by a man's Conviction and Will-"

A Pirate Captain.

"It's not something you can play around with! _A BUMBLING IDIOT LIKE YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN DARE TO TOUCH THIS FLAG_!"

And something deep in her heart was telling her to follow that Captain to the ends of the earth.


	4. Bear & Chopper -Vs- Chessmarimo

The weight of Luffy's words seemed to slam into Wapol and Chessmarimo like a physical force, and Bear couldn't really blame them. She never could've expected that such a speech could come out of the childish boy she had met.

"_I don't think I've ever known anyone like him_." She thought, staring up at the pirate in awe. "_Or have I_?" Was the reason that she had an unbearably strong urge to follow him because he was familiar? Like someone she had known before she lost her memories?

"Oi, Reindeer! Bear!" He called down to the duo below, a devilish grin on his face. "I'm gonna start kicking their asses right now, but what'll you two do?"

Before Bear could answer, Wapol began shouting from behind them. "If you want to protect that flag so much, then so be it!" He raised one of his arm-cannons towards Luffy.

"That's enough outta you, pal!" Sanji rushed forward to intercept the king's attack, and there was a popping sound followed by a grunt of pain from the blonde.

"Sounds like he put out his back." Kureha expertly noted.

"He shouldn't be up like this, to be honest." Bear commented.

The elderly doctor seemed to agree, as she ran after Sanji and kicked him down on his stomach. "**Doctor Stop**!"

He fell down and slid through the snow with a cry, as both Chopper and and Bear ran towards Wapol. The reindeer launched a punch towards him, but was quickly blocked by a sneering Chessmarimo.

"Out of the way!" Bear cried. Pulling the snow and ice from around her, she formed a whip-like stream of water, which wrapped around one of Chessmarimo's legs. The girl then pulled the whip back like a rope and launched the combination-man over her shoulder and into the air, causing him (or was it them, Bear wondered somewhere in the back of her mind) to crash into the ground.

"Awesome!" Luffy cheered on from up above. "Kick his ass!"

Bear had slid to a stop, eyeing both her opponents. Chessmarimo slowly struggled to get up. Even with their injuries, they got back on their feet. "Muhahaha... Even if you knock us down, we shall stand once again! No matter what happens to this body, we shall not let you lay a finger on His Maje-"

Bear was standing right next to Wapol, poking him with a single finger.

Chessmarimo was horrified.

"Ngh- You!" They pointed a finger at bear. "How dare you continue to disrespect us and His Majesty! Do you get some sort of enjoyment out of this!?"

"A little bit, yes." She was now leaning

"Grk!" Chessmarimo flinched, but then a suspicious look came over their two faces. "Come to think of it, we don't recognize you. Your clothes are strange and you don't look like any other citizen of this country. Tell us, rude peasant girl, where you are from, so that we may tell your ruler of your horrid actions!"

Bear bristled at being called 'rude peasant girl'. "How should I know!? I don't even know where this is!"

A look of surprise came over Chessmarimo then, followed by a look of gleeful contempt. "Ah, we see! Were you simply abandoned here, then? By disappointed parents? Or perhaps you were kidnapped, and then discovered to be of no worth, and simply left here?"

"Shut up!" She couldn't help stop the hurt decorating her voice. He'd hit a weak point. "I don't need a couple of stupid lackeys telling me who I am!"

"Who you are? You're just like that oddity over there!" The two turned their sneers to Chopper. "You're the 'Abominable Snowman' the villagers were making a fuss over years ago, correct? What a pitiable existence for the both of you! Scorned and hated by all..." And Chessmarimo laughed a horrible, stinging laugh. "What possible reason could a friendless monster and a friendless peasant have in wanting to save this kingdom!? It's absolutely ridiculous!"

"Shut up!" Chopper shot back. "I can fight just fine even without anybody on my side! As long as Doc's flag is waving behind my back, I-"

"Friendless? Not as long as I'm around!" Luffy had stuck Hiluluk's Flag back into the spire, and held tight, stretching his body back several feet. Using the pole like a slingshot, he flung himself forward. "I'm their friend! Both of them!"

The pirate landed with a crash that blew both Wapol and Chessmarimo away a few feet. "Shishishishi!"

"S-Straw-Hat, are you alright!?" Chopper screeched.

"Don't worry 'bout me, I'm rubber."

"So you can just do stuff like that without getting hurt!?" Bear astonishedly questioned.

"Yeah!" He grinned and pointed towards Chessmarimo. "Think you guys can handle those two?"

"I can take care of 'em without breaking a sweat!" Chopper confirmed.

"Yeah, just give me a few seconds and they're done!" Bear concurred.

"Then it's decided." Luffy cracked his knuckles. "I'll take on the big-mouthed hippo, then!"

"Oi, oi, wait Luffy!" Sanji attempted to crawl over to the 3 from under Kureha's foot. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"What's it look like? I'm gonna fight the hippo!"

"No, no, I mean making a lady fight! What kind of man let's a lady fi-"

"Ex_cuse _me!?" Bear practically radiated with anger. She stomped right over to Sanji and got in his face. "You think just because I'm a woman, I can't fight!?"

Sanji blanched. "N-No, that's not what I-"

"Then what? Why shouldn't I fight? Wasn't I a 'Goddess of War'?"

The blonde merely let out some sort of croaking noise, probably caused by both shock and being crushed by Kureha.

"I'll have you know that I can fight as good as any man or woman out there. In fact, I can fight better than most of them!" She turned back to Chessmarimo and walked back next to Chopper, a certain resolve in her steps. "Watch closely. I'll show you just how strong I can be." Sliding into a stance, she felt adrenaline running through her veins. "And it has nothing to do with my gender."

Kureha slid Sanji around like a bottle, so he was facing the battlefield. "It looks like someone's about to get a life lesson."

Chessmarimo roared with laughter. "You two think you can beat _me_!? A stupid animal and a useless peasant girl!? Ha!"

"My name is Tony Tony Chopper!" Chopper declared, shrugging off the men's insults. "The world's greatest doctor gave me that name!"

"You don't need to know my name," Bear added on, "Because you'll just remember me as the girl who kicked your ass straight off a mountain!"

"Even if Doc would forgive you brutes, I'll never forgive you for mocking him!"

"The ones begging for forgiveness will be you two! Get ready to die!"

It was then that Chopper took out a small, amber-colored sphere. "My Rumble Ball lasts for 3 minutes! And we'll beat you within that time!"

"Hey Chopper." Bear grinned at the small reindeer. "How about a minute and a half, instead?"

"3 minutes!? Muhahahaha! You won't be able to beat me, much less within only 3 minutes!"

"3 minutes!? I'd _love _to see that!" Wapol and Luffy both said, each with opposing tones.

"**Rumble**!" Chopper tossed the sphere into his mouth and bit down with a crunch.

Their foe took out two bows, each with an afro ignited at the tip. "Just what do you two think you can do!?" The arrows each launched towards the duo. "**Marimo's Snow Melting Arrows**!"

The young reindeer morphed into a normal reindeer form. "**Walk Point**." He dodged to the right with ease.

Bear inhaled and exhaled deeply. Time seemed to slow down. She could remember this. She had to be just like a leaf, flowing with the air and not against it. Bringing her right foot forward, the teen spun around once on the ball of her foot. As she spun, Bear gathered the air that spun with her and blasted it out in a wave, straight towards Chessmarimo. The blast knocked the men back a few feet, but they still stood.

"Hah!" They panted. "So the monster is a Zoan-User, and the peasant is a Devil's Fruit user as well!"

"Will _someone_ tell me what a Devil's Fruit is!?" Bear was beginning to give up hope on anyone ever answering her questions.

"Hmph!" Chessmarimo scoffed. "Stupid _as well as _useless! It makes no difference! We already know that your partner is a reindeer-human, and we shall figure out your fruit as well!"

"**Heavy Point**." Chopper morphed into his sasquatch-like form and charged forward, Bear on his heels. "You're wrong! I'm a human-reindeer!"

"What's the difference!? The important thing here is that I've already memorized the three forms of your Zoan fruit!" The two-in-one man took out 4 hammers, then, one in each hand. "**Marimo's Super Surprise Quattro Hammers**! You've already shown me all 3 of your forms! You're a power fighter, just like Dalton!"

"**Jump Point**."

"But you really think you can beat me in terms of raw strength!?" Chessmarimo slammed the hammer down on top of the oncoming reindeer.

But they missed.

"He jumped!?" Sanji observed from outside the battle. "How can he jump so high!?"

"What!?" The hammer-wielding men turned around to see a slim Chopper, upright like a human but with a reindeer's legs, high in the sky above them.

"Don't take your eyes off your opponent." Bear's voice sounded behind them. They turned back in time to get a stone pillar to the stomach, launching them backwards. The girl covered the pillar in water and froze it, creating a ramp that she skated up. Spinning once in mid-air, she brought her leg down, along with a torrent of fire, only to have a hammer slam into, sending her flying off to the side.

"Don't take your eyes off your opponent." Chessmarimo repeated and turned back to the air-borne Chopper. "I though your hybrid form was that small reindeer on two legs! You sly freak of nature!" They readied the hammers to attack the reindeer as he descended from the sky.

"**Guard Point**."

The hammer met a large, fluffy ball of fur with only a head and four legs. The fluff ball bounced to where Bear had landed.

"You okay, Bear?"

Bear used the air to spin herself back onto her feet. "Didn't feel a thing." She responded, sure that she would feel a large bruise on her side in the morning.

"Another form!?" Chessmarimo seemed to be losing their cool by now. "Impossible!"

"Your attacks won't work." Chopper informed.

"A Zoan-Fruit should only be limited to 3 forms! What the hell are you!?"

"My Rumble Ball is a drug that specifically alters the wavelengths emitted by each form! After 5 years of research, I've discovered 4 additional transformation points!"

"7 transformations!?"

"Se-" Luffy seemed to have not started his fight with Wapol yet, and was instead focused on Chopper and Bear's fight. "Seven freakin' forms!? He's the world's coolest reindeer!"

"A few extra forms just for show isn't enough to scare me! Neither are some crappy parlor tricks from a peasant!"

"Is he gonna quit it with the peasant stuff?" Bear sighed.

"**Arm Point**." Chopper again stood upright, only this time an impossible amount of muscle seemed to form into his arms.

"We need to take out those hammers, or we can never get close enough to get a good hit."

"Right."

The two dashed forward at high speed. The reindeer's hooves smashed the hammers on the left into splinters, while the human girl burned the ones on the right into kindling.

"Let me warn you right now that my iron hooves can crush even a boulder." Chopper attested to his strength.

"Heh, pretty sure I can do that with my bare hands." Bear grinned.

Chessmarimo was definitely getting worried now. "Conceited little freaks... Know your place!" The weapons they whipped out now were even deadlier than the last. "**Marimo's Super Surprise Quattro Axes**! **Hepatic Blade**!" They crossed the axes in front of themselves, creating a blast of slicing wind that caught Chopper on the left shoulder and Bear on her right forearm.

"Bleeding _Hog-monkeys- _That stings!" She hissed, grasping the wound. Her blood began soaking through the light fabric of the arm bands she wore on both arms.

"H-He just gouged the castle wall with that attack!" Sanji shouted, now being sat on by Kureha.

Bear looked behind her. Indeed, there were two long, gapping holes in the stone of the castle. "Wh-What!? How is that possible!?"

"I'll carve you up!" The axes were now spinning towards Chopper and her at an alarming rate, a furious Chessmarimo attached to them. "**All-Directional Snow Splitter**!" Both of them had to dance around the unrelenting swings in order not be injured any further. "What happened to all that confidence of yours earlier, you two!? You won't be able to beat us by just running away!"

Bear dodged to the left and rose the snow and ice around her feet into a large slab. "He's right, Chopper! I'm pretty sure we're past the minute and a half mark!" She began to punch the slab at rapid rate. Out of the other side, large shards of ice flew at Chessmarimo, cutting him like glass.

Bear was right, and Chopper knew it. They needed to end this within the next minute. "**Brain Point**." He morphed into his small hybrid form. "I'm not just running away... I've been searching for your weak point. It's time to finish him off, Bear!"

Having run out of ammo, Bear knocked down the ice slab and dashed over to Chopper. "Alright, let's take them out."

"**Scope**!" The reindeer stuck the tips of his hooves together, creating a small window between them.

"Th-That pose!" Luffy gulped. "It's gotta be a beam! He's gonna shoot out a beam for sure!"

"You've been searching for my weak point!?" Chessmarimo charged forward. "Ha! I don't even have a single blind spot! If it's anyone's time to finish someone off, then it's me killing some transforming freak and useless girl!"

"At least he went with something besides 'peasant'." Bear jumped to the right as Chopper seemed to figure out the weakness was the chin. Flinging out an arm, she pushed aside a whole strip of icy snow, revealing the the frozen ground below. Rolling over it, she allowed the earth to collect over her injured forearm, creating a solid rock-gauntlet.

Chopper jumped into the air. Bear bent her knees.

Chopper then morphed into his Arm Point and ducked below Chessmarimo, hiding himself from view. Bear used another stone pillar to launch herself towards her enemy.

"**Kokutei**-" Chopper bent an arm back, preparing to punch. Bear did the same.

"**Roseo**!" Chopper's iron hoof made contact with Chess' chin below Kuromarimo's head. Chessmarimo was sent tumbling backwards. As they arched backwards, they came to see the upside-down face of Bear.

"I believe I said not to take your eyes off your opponent." She flung her fist forward and hit the spot that had just taken a hit from an iron hoof. The force of her punch and the force of their flight met on impact and created a loud cracking noise. Chessmarimo blasted off in the opposite direction.

"3 minutes." Chopper went back to his hybrid and patted his pink hat.

"A minute and a half for both of us." Bear's stance went back to her more casual one as she crossed her arms.

Luffy shouted in victory. "Alright! You guys did it!"

"Hey," The teen looked around, slightly alarmed. "Where'd Wapol go?"

"He's gone!" Sanji cried, "Wapol disappeared!"

Kureah looked thoughtful. "He came up here on his wooly-hippo, so he can't have gone down the mountain without it."

"Ah-HA!" Luffy pointed an accusing finger at Bear. "I _knew _it wasn't an arctic-hippo!"

"Come on, they're probably the same thing." She shook off the stone on her arm and began healing it. "Need a tune up, Chopper?"

"Uh, sure..." The small reindeer shyly let the older teen heal the cut on his shoulder.

"What about you, Straw-Ha-"

"Dammit! That stupid Hippo! I'll find him and finish him off!"

"O~kay, you seem fine. What about eyebrow-"

"Wait... Don't tell me he went inside the castle!? If he did, Nami-san's in danger!" Sanji began dragging his body forward with his arms, crawling into the castle. "If he lays even a finger on Nami-san, I'll kill him a hundred times over!"

"Hey, stop right there!" Kureha called out to him, though not really bothering to stop the man.

Bear sighed. "I'll go after him, don't worry about it." After all, he _was _right about Nami being in danger.


	5. Cherry Blossoms

**A/N: That Book 3 finale breakin' my heart like**

* * *

"Hey, Combover guy! Wait up!" Bear ran- rather, power walked after Sanji, who was going along at a decent speed.

"I can't talk right now, Ma'am, I have to-" A horrified look came over the blonde man's face. "C-Combover...?"

"Gotcha!" She took advantage of his horror-stricken paralysis to pick Sanji up in order to prevent him from hurting himself. "Do you want to go around in a wheelchair for the rest of your life?"

He started to protest, but was cut off by the hand covering his mouth.

"Relax. We'll go protect that girl together, okay?" They walked in silence for a few moments, before. "So, I bet you don't think I'm weak anymore, do you?"

Sanji frowned. "I never said you were weak, I just said I didn't want you to fight."

Bear scoffed. "And why's that? Think we can't take it?"

"No, it's just..." He looked away. "I don't like seeing ladies get hurt."

"Girls get hurt just as often as boys. It happens."

The blonde made some sort of confirming noise, and turned his gaze back towards her. "You were really strong, though. Sorry for underestimating you."

The teenaged-amnesiac made a small sighing noise. "You're a clueless idiot, but you're also kinda sweet."

"Ehhhh!? Really, Bear-sama!?" There were loving hearts in Sanji's eyes. "I'm sweet!?"

"Don't push it."

Looking forward, Bear noticed the three figures ahead of them. Luffy was chasing after a suddenly skinny Wapol, while Nami was twirling a key around her finger.

"Oh... It's just the key to the armory? Shoot, I was hoping it'd be a key to his treasury instead..." The orange-haired woman looked disappointed. "How boring..."

"Hey, uh, Nami was it?" Bear addressed the woman to get her attention. "C'mon, it's not safe around here. Who knows when Wapol could come back?"

"Oh!" Nami turned to face her, surprised. "Bear-chan! Yeah, I guess that's true. Let's get back to my room, okay?"

OoOoOoOoO

"Agh, bleeding hog-monkeys! Why won't these stupid things stop slipping off my arm!?" Bear growled as the strip of bandages again failed to stay in place on her injured forearm.

Nami sighed and decided to spare her. "Here, let me help." She began wrapping the bandages around the wound, which was already reduced to a ghastly red slash rather than an open sore, thanks to the unknown healing powers the girl possessed. "Jeez, don't you even know how to put on bandages?"

"No..." The amnesiac pouted and looked away. "I only remember how to use my element controlling powers."

The orange-haired women realized with a flinch that she had spoken badly. "Well, that's not all true..."

"What do you mean?"

"Hog-monkeys." Nami finished bandaging Bear's arm.

"Ummm...? What about hog-monkeys?"

"I've never heard of them. What about you, Sanji-kun?"

Sanji looked over from the bed Bear had dragged into the room and promptly stuck him in. "Nope. Come to think of it, Bear-sama, you mentioned things like 'tiger-seals' and 'arctic-hippos'. I've never heard of any of those animals."

"Really? Animals like those are pretty common where I'm fro-" Bear's eyes widened and she gasped.

"Exactly. You remember all those hybrid animals and everything, right? I'm guessing it's sort of a subconscious thing."

She smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Slipping her arm sleeve back over the bandages, she frowned at the tear in the fabric and the blood staining it.

"I can fix that for you." Nami smiled at her. "Lemme see it."

Bear placed the stretch of material in the other woman's outstretched hand. "Thanks."

An explosion rocked the castle.

"What was that!?" The fighting girl looked around, panicked.

Nami shrugged. "Probably just Luffy."

"Let me check. You two stay here." She motioned at the two of them and ran out of the room.

OoOoOoOoO

Bear arrived outside just in time to see Luffy crash into the ground, and into two people.

"What the hell are you doing!?" One of them, a man with tanned ochre skin and short, lime-green hair screeched at him. On his left ear were three golden earrings to match with the three swords he carried at his side.

"Sorry about that." Luffy rubbed his head and laughed. "Your clothes made you look like the enemy from a distance. So you guys hiked up here, too? Usopp, I thought you said you weren't gonna hike?"

Usopp, who had an unusually long nose, dark-bay skin, and goggles and a hairnet over his curly black hair, got up and cracked his back. "Hahaha, don't be stupid. I'm the kind of guy who just climbs mountains because they're there. This one was a bit of a doozy, but nothing the Great Usopp couldn't handle."

"We took the ropeway up here." A mahogany-skinned woman with her blue hair tied into a ponytail explained. "Are Nami-san and Sanji-san alright!?"

"Yup, they're all better now!"

"On our way up, we were attacked by a giant condor. 'Course, I was a little surprised at first but I instinctively sprang into action!" Usopp continued on in the background.

"Oh, that's a relief."

Bear decided now was a good time as any to walk into the conversation. "Friends of yours, Straw-hat?"

"It tried to dive right for my heart, but I, with the grace of ballet dancer, effortlessly dodged its deadly strike!"

"Mah?" Luffy turned to her and smiled. "Oh, yeah! This is Zoro, Usopp, and Vivi."

"After missing, the condor tried to fly back up, but _I, _the Great Captain, would not allow such a thing! I quickly threw a lasso around its neck and as I tightened it, I yelled 'My name is Captaaaaiiin Usopp!"

"It's very nice to meet you all." Bear smiled and bowed, placing her palm and a fist together. "You can call me Bear."

"Eh?" Zoro, the green-haired man was taken aback. "You don't look like a bear."

She cocked an eyebrow at him, but ignored his comment. "Straw-hat, where's Wapol?"

"Oh. I sent him flying."

A large, heavily injured man walked up to them. It looked like he had rode up on the lift with the others. "Then, that thing flying through the air just a moment ago... was really Wapol!? What about his two servants!?"

Bear would ask later how Wapol had literally been sent 'flying through the air'. Right now, she was looking worriedly at the man. "Me and Chopper took them out. But that's not important right now. You need a healer." She held a hand out to him. "Here."

"You and... Chopper?"

Motioning behind her, she clarified. "The reindeer."

Chopper was there, hiding- well, he was doing it so the opposite way one would hide- behind a tree.

The man gaped at him. "A blue nose? You're... The one from back then?" He looked at all of them, and then got on his hands and knees and bowed low. "Thank you! I'm sure Drum can finally be born anew now!"

"Hey!" Bear picked him up by the arm and scolded him. "Don't move around with wounds like that!"

A scream broke out behind them.

"Th-There's a weird creature over there!" Several men had also come off the lift.

"A reindeer? No, its-"

"It's a m-m-mon-"

"Stop your yelling at once!" The injured man ordered his subordinates.

"Monsteeeeeeerrrrr!" Usopp had taken the liberty to cry out the rest of the men's words. Chopper's face darkened with a cry, and he ran off.

"Dumbass!" Luffy went over and hit him. "That's our new crewmate I found! But he ran away because you scared him off!" And then the rubber boy ran after the reindeer, scaring him even more.

Bear, meanwhile, glared at the bunch. "How _dare _you! You should be on your knees, thanking him! He just saved your country!"

"Hey, Bear." Kureha cooed from behind the girl, her appearance causing much fright amongst the crowd. "Quit barkin' and bring the wounded to the patient rooms." She then turned back to the castle wall, and kicked a hole in it. "I said get back to the patient rooms!"

Nami and Sanji peered out from the hole.

"What happened to 'stay where you are?'" Bear growled out at them as she walked inside.

OoOoOoO

Sanji's screams echoed throughout the castle.

"Jeez, I guess she just skipped 'heal' and went to 'torture'." Bear commented as she healed the man, who turned out to be Dalton, with water. A crowd of civilians-turned-soldiers gathered around in awe, the soft glow illuminating all.

Kureha then walked back in the room, causing the crowd to jump back in fear. "Hee hee hee. His back's in even worse shape, like I thought. It's his own damn fault for running around while still injured." She took a swig of sake and turned to Dalton. "Dalton, you don't happen to know where the key to this castle's armory is, do you?"

"The armory? Why would you even want the key to that?"

"And, all done!" Bear finished healing Dalton and slowly set him down. "Now don't you dare start getting out of bed like everyone else I heal."

"Don't worry, I won't." He smiled. "But, Doctor Kureha, Wapol's always kept that key with him at all times, so I would imagine it's disappeared into the sky along with him."

"Why don't I just break down the door, Kureha?" Bear lifted a stone from the floor into the air and grinned. "If it's made of rock, it won't be a problem."

"Actually, Bear-chan..." Nami sat up from her bed and winked. "You won't have to lift a finger. Doctorine, about the treatment fee for me and my crewmates... Can I get you to waive it off? Oh, and allow us to leave right away as well, okay?"

"Is that supposed to be some sort of bad joke? I'll not only be taking all the money you have, but also whatever else you've got on your shop as treatment costs." Kureha frowned and placed her hands on her hips. "Also, you're not leaving anywhere for another 2 whole days, missy."

"Listen to the doctor, Nami!" Vivi, the blue-haired girl from before, scolded her friend. "We have to make sure you're back to full health before-

"Its fine. Don't feel like I'm on the verge of death anymore."

Bear rolled her eyes. "Wow! A full recovery! Why do you wanna leave so badly, anyways?"

"Because, we just do. We need to leave, and you-" She pulled out a key and twirled it around her finger. "-need this key."

"Is that the real key? How did you get it?" Kureha's eyes were wide.

"I swiped it."

"Forcing me to accept your ridiculous demands... You've got some guts for a little girl."

Bear frowned. "Uh, hello? Person who can move stone like it's nothing, right here!"

"You can't get into that damn armory!" The doctor snapped back. "It's made of metal. the whole thing!" She grabbed the key from Nami and pulled on a jacket. "Fine, I'll waive off your treatment bills."

Nami's face brightened.

"But! I won't accept your second condition. I can't allow it as a doctor."

Nami's face darkened. "What, no! Oi, give that key back, then!"

"Listen up, Missy. I'm going to leave this room for a while to take care of some business. In the inner room over there, you can find my coat, and there won't be anyone standing guard. Also, I've finished fixing up your other friend's dislocated back." She glared right at Nami. "But don't you dare use my absence to escape! Bear, come help me with some things."

Bear stood up and looked Kureha in the eyes. "Actually, Doctor, I'm going to be leaving now."

The old woman stopped short.

"Thank you for taking care of me. As you know, I don't have anything with me but the clothes on my back, so I'm unable to pay you, but-"

Kureha barked out a laugh. "You? Leave? Please. As little-miss-amnesia, you wouldn't last a second out on the Grand Line!"

Bear cocked and eyebrow up. "Grand Line?"

"Damn girl can't remember anything." The old woman chuckled darkly and threw a book at her younger peer. "Here! Start reading up and get to rememberin', and then you can leave."

When she flipped open to the front page of the book, the amnesiac's brows knitted together. She continued to flip through the pages, until she growled out, "I can't read a word of this!"

"See! Can't even read!"

"No, I mean it's in complete gibberish!"

"What are you talking about?" Kureha stomped over and grabbed the book, holding it out for her to read. "It's in perfect Sea Script!"

Bear groaned and looked to the group of civilians. "Anyone got anything to write with?" A pencil was promptly tossed to her. She grabbed the book back and wrote something inside the front cover. Handing it back to the doctor with a satisfied smirk, she leaned back and said, "See?"

Kureha stared at what Bear had written. Her eyes were wide, and they seemed to hold some small sprinkling of emotion that couldn't exactly be placed. Fear? "Bear." She addressed the girl, who looked up. The old woman displayed the inside of the front cover. One single line of characters were written there.

"醫生庫爾啊的財物"

"This isn't a language, Bear."

"What?" A worried smile came upon the young girl's face. "Hey, c'mon, quit joking!"

"Bear, can you tell me what year it is?"

"Huh? I-It's 171."

The room was absolutely silent.

"You know, 171? Chun Tai era?" Bear turned to Nami and Vivi. Their faces held interest, confusion, and even slight horror. "Year of the Goat?"

"Bear." Kureha finally spoke. "It's 1527 in the Great Pirate Era."

The girl's breath caught on her throat. "W-What?"

The doctor turned and walked away. "You're of no help here, then. Everyone else, come with me." She and the rest walked out of the room.

Bear sat there on the stool, frozen. All could see were her hands. Hands from the year 171. Vivi frowned and looked at Nami.

"Hey-" She tried to place a comforting hand on the shocked girl, but she recoiled backwards.

"S-Sorry." Bear squeaked out. "I-"

"It's alright."

"Are you going to come with us?" Nami asked softly.

She was silent. Raising her head, the girl looked at the full moon outside the window. "Yeah. Your captain asked me to join, and... There's something telling me that if I follow you guys, I'll find the answers I'm looking for."

"Good luck." Dalton spoke up, smiling.

Bear smiled back at him. "You too."

OoOoOoO

They grabbed Sanji and left the castle. Walking out into the snow, there seemed to be a scene already going on.

"I'm thankful to you for helping us out!" Chopper was looking down at the ground, not meeting anyone's eyes. Then he scrunched up his face and yelled, "But I'm... A reindeer! I have horns... hooves... And my nose is even blue ...!"

Bear turned to Chopper. She wanted to comfort him, but she didn't know how. With the way she was feeling, she wasn't sure she could do so even if she knew how.

"I do... Want to be a pirate, but...!" Tears welled up in his eyes. "But I'm not human! I'm a monster! So I can't be a pirate with you! That's why... I've come here just to say thanks! Thank you, for inviting me along. Though I'll be staying here, maybe one day, I'll-"

"SHUT UP!" Luffy bellowed, throwing his fists high above his head. "LET'S GO!"

OoOoOoO

"So, you're really coming with us then, Bear?" Luffy sat atop the beginnings of a snowman.

"Yeah. I mean, I have nowhere else to go, so..." Bear looked down and smiled sadly. "I don't really have a 'home', I guess."

"What are you talking about!?" Luffy grinned at her. "We're your home, now!"

"Huh?"

"We're your friends now, so don't be sad, okay? Captain's orders!"

Bear looked at him. This kid was crazy! But, for some reason, she felt her sadness ebbing away. "Okay." She smiled at him.

"Shishishi! That's great!" He began balancing on the snowball he was sitting on. "See, the way I figure it, you're from another world!"

"What?" Usopp questioned his captain's logic from over where he was building his own snowman. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, you talk all weird, you dress all weird, and you have those cool powers! And you said you write all weird too, right?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Bear scratched her head. "I thought it was the year 171, so shouldn't that mean I'm from the past, or something?"

Luffy stuck his tongue out. "So? I can say I'm from the year 'meat', and that doesn't mean I'm from the past! You must've come out of some portal or something!"

"That doesn't make any sense, you idiot..." Sanji dryly commented from the ground.

"But if you got here somehow, then you should be able to get back, right? So we'll go to wherever you're from and ask them who you are!"

Bear thought for a moment. Normally, she wouldn't believe him, but she had just seen a man eat two other men whole and then combine them, today. Logic had gone somewhere and died. "Sounds fine to me."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone had gotten impossibly lost." Usopp informed. "Maybe you're related to Zoro, somehow."

Zoro decapitated Usopp's snowman in retaliation.

"Oi, Zoro! That's murder!"

Bear doubled over in laughter. "Man, you guys are crazy!"

Luffy laughed along with her. "I know, right!?"

Crashing noises began to sound from the castle.

"Jeez..." Nami commented. "Whoever's making so much noise should show some more class. Don't they know that Chopper's trying to have a tearful goodbye?"

"Look's like he's done." Zoro said. Out from the castle ran Chopper, pulling a sleigh behind him.

"Oi, reindeer! We fixed the ropeway down!" Luffy yelled out to him.

"Everyone, get on!" Chopper screamed back. "We'll be going down the mountain right now!"

"What? There's no need to hurry, Chopper!" Bear yelled.

Behind the reindeer came a furious Kuerha, hurtling knives in their direction.

"Hurry, Chopper!" Bear restated. She scooped up Sanji and jumped in the sleigh, everyone piling in behind her. "Thank you for treating me, Doctor Kureha!"

"You owe me money!"

"Uh, reindeer?" Zoro turned towards Chopper. "You're about to pull us right of the mountain!"

As the sleigh slipped off the mountain, they did not fall to their deaths, as expected by Zoro, but instead slid onto a rope. The full moon silhouetted them all, making it look as though they were flying through the air.

Bear looked at the moon as Usopp tried to pull Luffy, who had fallen off, back into the sleigh. It shown down upon them with a mystic glow, bathing the group in a white light. She couldn't take her eyes off it.

"Yue sure is beautiful tonight."

Vivi turned her head towards Bear. "Who?"

"The moon."

OoOoOoO

Dalton stood behind Kureha. "Are you fine with a goodbye like that?"

"Hee hee hee... Now I won't have to feed a pet that I was forced to take care of!" Something wet was leaking from her eyes. "I'm not one for sad goodbyes..." She wiped her eyes and turned towards Dalton. "Now follow me!"

"Oww!"

"We have to make it in time, before they set sail!"

They ran to the side of the castle. Every cannon in the Drum Kingdom was encircled around the structure, pointing straight upwards.

"Are the preparations complete!?"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"Then fire!"

_"Listen, Kureha. This powder..."_

The cannons each fired with a blast of sound.

Dalton addressed Kureha. "What're you planning, exac-"

"Just shut up and watch."

"All shots fired, Doctor Kureha!" Someone saluted.

"Them light'er up!"

OoOoOoO

All across the land in a Kingdom once called Drum, the people on the snowy streets pointed and exclaimed in awe as their eyes took in the sight before them. The wildlife in the forests stopped and stared. Even the Straw-hat Pirates had stopped their sleigh so they could properly see it.

A wracking sob worked its way up Chopper's throat.

"Whoooaaaa!" Luffy gasped.

"You said it." Zoro agreed.

The sob broke its way out of Chopper and into the air.

"It's so pretty..." Nami cooed.

And with an outcry of emotion, the reindeer's heart was mended.

The sky above the mountain which the castle rested on was tinted a deep pink. It dyed the snowflakes as they floated down, making them look like cherry blossoms falling in the spring. The mountain itself looked like a great tree trunk.

Cherry Blossoms were blooming on a Snowy Winter Island.

OoOoOoO

"Hmm..." Kureha hummed and gulped down her drink. "They must've left the island by now..."

"The reindeer that inherited both the best medical skills and the heart required for a doctor..."

"If Hiluluk's Cherry Blossoms really did cause a miracle, then it's the fact that a timid little reindeer like him decided to venture the seas..." Kureha grinned. "He was acting all tough like a man for a moment there, hee hee hee..."

"I'm sure this country will change, just like him..."

"Dalton-san!" Two people ran over to the pair. "Look! We just remembered that we ought to show you this!"

"Show me what?"

"This! Look!" A poster was shoved into his hands, with the word 'WANTED' and a picture of a smiling boy in a straw-hat. "That's him! No doubt about it!"

"A wanted pirate with a bounty of 30 million beli..."

"Oh?" Kureha drank. "Well, isn't he quite the notorious villain?"

"Where did you get this?" Dalton asked.

The three began to discuss something, while Kureha grabbed the poster out of Dalton's hands. She studied it intensely.

"Doctor Kureha... What're staring at that poster for?" One of the men eventually asked her.

"Do you know of Gol D. Roger?"

"D...? You mean Gold Roger? Well, yeah, who doesn't know about him?"

"So is that what the people call him these days? Seems my reindeer and that girl have gone off with a very dangerous man indeed..." Kureha grinned. "It seems the Will of D is still alive..."

They all sat and looked at the snow in silence for a bit. Then,

"Oh, by the way, Doctor Kureha?"

"Yeah?"

"Were you the source of that light a few nights ago as well?"

"Huh? What light?"

"Oh, you don't know about it, then? The other night, it seems there was a bright light above the kingdom. Some people even report seeing something fall out of it!"

Dalton looked at Kureha, Kureha back at Dalton.

"Well, I'll be..." She chuckled. "What an interesting girl..."

OoOoOoO

The waves gently rocked the Going Merry, the boat of the Straw-hat Pirates.

"Ahahahaha!" Luffy was running around the deck, chopsticks sticking out of his nose and into his mouth.

"The full moon is out and the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom! What a night!"

"Chopper! Hey, Chopper! How long are ya gonna sit there moping!?" Usopp walked towards Chopper, who was sitting on the railing and staring towards the sky. "Come and drink with us!"

"Yo Nami, look!" Luffy was still dancing. "I learned this from Yosaku!"

"Guys!" Nami yelled at them. "Would it kill you to pay some attention over here, too!?"

"What? Those two look alive to me."

"Yeah, barely!" Bear screamed back at him. She was slowly moving small flames over a large duck, which Vivi was clinging to.

"Carue! What were you doing out frozen in the river!?"

The large duck, Carue, was apparently Vivi's pet, and had been found floating in the frozen arctic river.

"Maybe he slipped and fell in?" Zoro drunkenly offered. "Haha, clumsy lil' guy."

"You stay quiet, Mr. Bushido!"

"He said he saw someone called 'Zoro' disappear in the river, so he jumped inside to rescue him, but ended up becoming frozen." Chopper informed them all.

"_So this was your fault_!" Nami slapped the back of Zoro's head.

While Bear was laughing at Zoro, Vivi asked, "You can understand what Carue is saying, Tony-kun?"

"Well, I was originally a normal animal, so I can communicate with other animals."

"That's amazing, Chopper!" Nami praised with a clap, "You're not only well versed in medical skills, but you can talk to animals, too!?"

"Sh-shut up!" Chopper danced around. "That doesn't make me happy one bit, you idiot!"

"Wait, Nami-san," Sanji interrupted, "What do you mean by medical skills?"

Nami told them.

"Whaaaaat!? Chopper, you're a doctor!?"

"If you didn't know that, then why on earth did you invite him aboard?"

"He's a cool reindeer that can transform into 7 different forms, duh." Luffy said.

"Emergency food supply." Sanji said.

Chopper tried to run away, while Usopp commented, "I thought you were going to be the doctor, Bear. You said you're a healer, right?"

Bear had finished with Carue and stood up. "Yeah, but I don't know much about medicine or anything like that. I can heal physical wounds, but not illnesses."

"Oh no!" Chopper exclaimed, "I forgot to bring my medical supplies because I was too busy trying to escape!"

"Huh? Then what's this?" Nami hefted a bag up. "It was on the sleigh."

"My backpack! But how!?"

"How? I thought you put it there. No?"

"It must've been Kureha who put it there." Bear commented, sitting down next to Chopper, who's eyes looked watery as he sat with his backpack. "She may have never said it, but she probably loved you like a so-"

"Ahahahaha!" Usopp and Luffy broke in, both of them doing the chopstick routine now.

"Keep it down over there!" Nami admonished, also sitting next to Chopper.

"Hey Chopper, Bear, you guys wanna try, too?"

Both promptly had chopsticks shoved into their mouths and noses.

Usopp blew a whistle, then, holding out a pint of alcohol. "Attention, everybody! Ahem." He stood above them all, speaking loudly. "I'd like to welcome our new friends-"

"Carue, you drank too much!"

"Quack!"

"Hey, Cook! Bring some snacks to go along with the drinks!"

"What did you say to me!? I'm not your servant, pal!"

"-Doctor Tony Tony Chopper, and Mystery Girl Bear!"

"Sanji! Do we have anymore dino meat!? We packed a whole bunch, didn't we!?"

"This is-" Chopper started to say.

"And so!" Usopp continued. "I'd like to propose a toast on this occasion!"

Sanji and Zoro fought. Luffy cheered on. Vivi worried over Carue. Carue took another drink. Nami grinned.

"This is the first time I've ever been so happy!"

"Me too." Bear agreed. The crew had accepted her without any hesitation. Here, she felt welcomed. She felt like she belonged.

"To our new friends!" Usopp cheered. "Kanpai!"

As she looked down at the reflection of the moon on her pint, Bear felt that everything was going to be fine.

"Kanpai!"


End file.
